A collective of economic experts and social researchers has actually released a joint statement requiring that data collection commissioned as part of upgrading the National Population Register(NPR) be stopped and that it be de-linked from the continuous Census 2021 data-gathering exercise.
” There is a genuine risk that the issues around the National Population Register and the worries that are growing among significant sections that private investigators can identify whether a respondent’s citizenship is “skeptical”. This possibility has currently caused prevalent public distrust and suspicion about the NPR, and it is not clear that there are any take advantage of the NPR at the present point,” the nearly 100 researchers have actually said in a statement.
” It is necessary to ensure that the exercise of data collection for Census 2021 is definitely safe, thorough and unpolluted by any other factors,” they added.
Performing NPR together with the Census also breaks Clause 15 of The Census Act 1948 that bars anyone from accessing “any book, register or record made by a census officer in the discharge of his responsibility”. It also breaks the provision in the very same stipulation that “no entry in any such book, register, record or schedule will be acceptable as proof in any civil proceeding aside from a prosecution under this Act,” the declaration added.
The signatories cover a variety of organizations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University, Azim Premji University, The Indian School of Company, Hyderabad to international establishments such as the Oxford University and the New York University.
The NPR, a register of homeowners of the country with market and biometric details, was supposed to be prepared between April 2020 and September 2020 ahead of the Census slated for 2021.
Here is the full statement by the cumulative of economic experts and social scientists:
We are economic experts and social researchers who are deeply concerned about the significant implications for the Indian analytical system, of the effort to integrate data collection for the 2021 Census of India with that for the proposed National Population Register.
Signed:
1.
