New Delhi: Amid the ongoing row over the NPR exercise, the government on Tuesday asserted that census data is confidential and guaranteed under the law and those violating it will be punished.
In a series of tweets, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGI) also said the 2021 would be the first ever census to be conducted with a mixed mode approach - a mobile app (created in-house by RGI office).
"While confidentiality about your data is guaranteed by Census Act, 1948; the same law specifies penalty for BOTH public AND census officials for non-compliance or violation of any provision of the Act," the RGI said.
The National Population Register (NPR) exercise, to be build a register of usual residents of the country, will be carried out along with the house listing phase of the census. It is being prepared at the local (village/sub-town), subdistrict, district, state and national levels under provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
During the census exercise, there will be facility for online self enumeration for the public during population enumeration phase.
The house listing phase of the Census 2021 will be carried out from April 1 to September 30, 2020. The census will have its reference date as March 1, 2021, but for snow-bound Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand it will be October 1, 2020.
A few state governments have declared that they will not participate in the NPR exercise now alleging it is a prelude to a countrywide National Register of Citizens. Assemblies of Kerala and Punjab have adopted resolutions announcing their opposition to the exercise.The rules have a provision for fine of up to Rs 1,000 on those violating it.
Last week, at a meeting convened by the Union Home Ministry to discuss the modalities to be adopted during the house listing phase of the Census 2021 and the NPR, a few states raised objections over the new methodology to be adopted in the NPR exercise.
However, the central government defended the steps saying certain responses to be given by people are not mandatory but voluntary. Assam has been excluded because the National Register of Citizens exercise has already been conducted in the state.
The data for NPR was last collected in 2010 along with the house listing phase of the Census 2011. Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting door to door survey during which the government had asked details like Aadhaar and their mobile number. This time, the information related to their driving licence and voter ID card may also be gathered, the officials said, adding that PAN card details will not be collected as part of this exercise.
The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 3,941.35 crore for the NPR exercise.
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