Maintaining of account books is very important for a business house. If the accountant does not do his job properly, the business goes down and the owner comes in to the red. So is our country. The income, expenditure, population, per capita income and planning etc. all are dependent on the enumeration process. If some states say that they won’t allow NPR in their area, then what kind of accountability the Centre can maintain should be analysed and understood. If no proper citizenship base is maintained, then illegal migrants from neighbouring countries will continue to enjoy our country’s resources.
NPR is an exercise that is required and a necessity to update the population details of India or any country. I also recommend the same. When the government is spending so much for this, details of the education, profession and job details should also be collected. These will help in getting the right statistics of our people in India. Unless we have the right data about our citizens, how can we plan the benefits and rights of the people? We have lot of resources in India, but our data is not up to date. The opposition parties and media are unnecessarily blowing up the issue so that they stay visible! No one is bothered about our country and its’ future! Next thing is the Big data analysis for decision making and passing on benefits etc.
Right to information is of course the privilege of Indian citizens. Its converse too should be maintained. The state should be in a position to be aware of per capita income of its citizens, the level of deprivation of those who avail undeserving privileges misinterpreting secularism of the country etc. Unscrupulous politicians have brought about a lot of inconsistencies in registers, to cite an example, in our parliamentary constituency, there had been a host of doubling in electoral registers which was noted by one and took measures on a wartime basis, and the electoral outcome changed significantly.
So, the census, registers etc should be updated scientifically so that no political patronage should interfere into the data. Our government should not be discharged in implementing the noble task of collection of credible data regarding citizens which are intended towards discharging citizen friendly allotments for empowering people, based on credible data. Those who had been booked for sedition have their own divisive agenda. So, such frolic people say irrelevant things to mislead citizens. In democracy we have nothing to fear, so long as we are aware of our rights and obligations, see what happened to those who declared emergency when an imminent no confidence motion robbed her peace of mind. Dissension is allowed, but, let us not loose our sense of proportion.
It has been categorically said that no individual should submit any document to any authority or enumerator visiting his/her household for NPR survey. Information provided by the individual would be accepted and recorded accordingly. The Ministry spokesperson has not denied the point that the National Population Register form will include an additional column seeking details of the place of birth of father and mother.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
