Context: Recently, the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) has said the schedule or the questionnaire of the National Population Register (NPR) is being finalised and the information about the expected date of first phase of Census 2021 is not available.
About National Population Register (NPR)

• The National Population Register (NPR) is a Register of usual residents of the country.
• It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
• It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
• A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
• Purpose of NPR: The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country.
• NPR was first done in 2010 and was later updated in 2015 when it was linked with the Aadhaar.
• Conduct of NPR: The process of updating NPR will be carried out under the aegis of the Registrar General and ex-Officio Census Commissioner, India.

Difference between NPR and Census

• The decennial census is the largest single source of a variety of statistical information on different characteristics of the people of India.
• The NPR only contains demographic information but more details are required for census like information on demography, economic activity, literacy and education, and housing and household amenities besides others.
• The census is the basis for reviewing the country's progress in the past decade, monitoring the ongoing schemes of the government and plan for the future.

Concerns

• Some States such as West Bengal and Rajasthan have objected to additional questions to be asked in the fresh NPR such as “date and place of birth of father and mother, last place of residence and mother tongue”.
• There are apprehensions and fears that the CAA 2019, followed by a country-wide NRC, will benefit non-Muslims excluded from the proposed citizens’ register, while excluded Muslims will have to prove their citizenship.
• The CAA 2019 allows citizenship on basis of religion to six undocumented communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before 31st December, 2014.
• Six Communities are: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians.

Government’s Stand

• The government has denied that the CAA and the NRC are linked.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed a parliamentary panel earlier this year that there was a need to update the NPR to “incorporate the changes due to birth, death and migration” and “Aadhaar is individual data whereas NPR contains family wise data.”
• The MHA informed the panel that it proposes to collect details on additional questions such as “date and place of birth of parents” in the NPR to “facilitate back end data processing and making the data items of date and place of birth complete for all household(s)”.

History of Census in India

• The earliest literature 'Rig-Veda' reveals that some kind of population count was maintained in during 800-600 BC in India.
• The celebrated 'Arthashastra' by 'Kautilya' written in the 3rd Century BC prescribed the collection of population statistics as a measure of state policy for taxation.
• During the regime of the Mughal king Akbar, the administrative report 'Ain-e-Akbari' included comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics.
• The systematic and modern population census, in its present form was conducted non-synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of the country.
• 1872 has been popularly labeled as the first population census of India.
• The first synchronous census in India was held in 1881 and since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten year.