Former Officials Urge Census Confidentiality Amid NPR, NRC Link Fears
Ex-officials stress Census data must stay confidential as historical links to NRC preparation raise concerns.
Former government officials have stressed that Census data must remain strictly confidential, amid growing concerns that the information could be linked to the National Population Register (NPR) and a potential National Register of Citizens (NRC).
The caution comes in the wake of historical records which reveal that in 1951, an NRC was prepared across the country by directly copying data from Census schedules. That nationwide exercise, however, was never officially published.
The only exception was in undivided Assam, which at the time also included the territories of Manipur and Tripura. In that region, the register was compiled and made public.
Officials point to this precedent as a reason for vigilance. They argue that if Census data is not protected by law, it could again be repurposed for citizenship verification exercises, undermining the confidentiality assurances given to citizens during enumeration.
The debate underscores the need for clear legal safeguards to ensure that personal information collected for demographic purposes is not used for any other administrative or legal process without explicit consent.