We have been hearing about the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) a lot these days, but should be care? Well, Yes. Read this short 5-minute informative blog to know everything that an Indian should know about NRC.
What is National Register of Citizenship (NRC)?
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register maintained by the Government of India consist of names & related information for the identification of Indian citizens of Assam state.
Initially, this register was made for Assam state only, but on 20th Nov 2019, Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah (NDA government) has confirmed that the register would be extended throughout the country.
The register was 1st prepared in the year 1951 Census of India, since then it has not been updated. The demand to update the register/NRC in Assam is being raised by the All Assam Students Union since 1975. Assam with a population of around 33 Million is the only state which has updated the NRC. The process of NRC began after the order by Supreme Court in the year 2013.
The primary objective of the NRC update in the Assam state is to identify the foreign nationals and Indian nationals.
Who is citizen of Assam? as per NRC
Those who are living in Assam state before 1971 will be considered as the citizens of Assam.
If anyone wants to see his/her name in the NRC list of the citizens of Assam then they need to submit a form with any of these documents (LIST 1 mentioned below) to prove his/her residence in the state before March 25, 1971. In another case, if anybody claims that his/ her ancestors are native residents of the Assam then also he/she has to submit a form with any of these documents mentioned below in the ‘List 2 documents section’.
| List 1 documents include: | List 2 documents include: |
| 1. Electoral rolls upto March 25, 1971
2. NRC of 1951 3. Land and tenancy records 4. Citizenship certificate 5.Permanent resident certificate 6.Passport 7.Bank or LIC documents 8. Permanent Residential Certificate 9.Educational certificates and court order records 10.Refugee Registration Certificate |
1. Land documents
2. Board or university certificates 3. Birth certificate 4. Bank/LIC/post office records 5. Ration card 6. Electoral rolls 7. Other legally acceptable documents 8. A circle officer or gram panchayat secretary certificate for married women |
- The government has spent approx.1,200Cr Rupees in the NRC process.
- 55,000 government officials were involved in the NRC process.
- 64.4 Million documents were examined in the NRC process.
- Assam’s final NRC list released on 31st August 2019. This list excluded 19,06,657 people while 3.11 Cr make it to the citizenship list.
- Total of 3.29 crore people had applied for it.
- Approx. 1,17,164 people have been declared foreigners out of which 1,145 are in the detention (Till July 2019).
Now The Bigger Question: Does exclusion from the list mean the declaration of foreigner?
No. Those excluded from the NRC list can appeal to the foreigners’ tribunals which are quasi-judicial bodies within 120 days from the list release. If anybody who is declared foreigner at foreigners tribunals then he/she can approach the high courts. If somebody is declared foreigner by the courts then he/she can go to the detention center.
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