Kerala govt reiterates stance against NPR, issues fresh notification

The Kerala government issued a notification on February 4 reiterating that the National Population Register (NPR) will not be implemented in the state under any circumstances. 

The NPR has remained suspended in Kerala since December 20, 2019, in line with a government notification dated August 24, 2019. Kerala made its declaration of defiance when preliminary work on creating the NPR had begun in a number of states in the country as preparatory exercise for Census 2021. The Census work did not go far as it was thwarted by the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The repeat notification by Kerala has been issued a fortnight after the Office of Registrar General under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) came out with a set of 33 questions census officers have to ask citizens as part of the 'houselisting and housing census schedule' of Census 2027. The MHA Notification came out on January 22. 

During the last 2011 Census, the National Population Register (NPR) was prepared along with the 'houselisting' phase.  In 2019, in the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act, the CPM-led LDF government had taken the political stand that the NPR is just a cover to exclude certain communities from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that the Centre had announced in 2021 that it would implement across the country. 

Therefore, in December 2020, the first Pinarayi Ministry, concerned that census operations had begun across the country, refused to cooperate with the NPR and wanted census officers to avoid two questions that could potentially place a citizen out of the NRC. Date of birth of the respondents and details of their parents. However, the pandemic ostensibly forced the postponement of the census exercise.

Now, six years later, the census exercise has resumed. The 33 questions in the 'houselisting and housing census schedule' of Census 2027 does not include the two questions Kerala had objected to. Problem is, Census 2027 will be held in two phases. It will begin in April 2026 with the 'houselisting and housing' census (which will identify census houses, ascertain their quality, amenities accessible to them and the assets enjoyed by the occupants of these houses). It is during the subsequent second phase, the 'population enumeration' phase, that the NPR activity will be carried out this time.

Both the NPR and the NRC were formed in 2003, and both came out of the Citizenship Act, 1955.

While the NRC was created through an amendment of the Act in 2003, the NPR is the product of a set of Rules - Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 - framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

NPR, which includes biometric and demographic details, was first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015, and its objective is to create a comprehensive database of "usual residents" in the country. The NRC, which was implemented in Assam in 2013-14, is seen as an exercise to identify illegal immigrants, move them to detention centres and eventually deport them.

Amid reports that the census could resume across the country from next year, along with the possibility of the NPR being conducted simultaneously, the LDF government said the fresh directive was issued to restate its clear position that no NPR-related activities will be permitted in the state.

Kerala was the first state to adopt an Assembly resolution opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The state government had also approached the Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the law, the government statement read.