National Population Register

National Population Register

News: For Census 2021, the Government has made the National Population Register (NPR) mandatory, allowing citizens to self-enumerate, for individuals who wish to fill out the census form themselves instead of relying on government enumerators.

What is NPR?
 NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country.
 A usual resident for the purposes of NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
 Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
 It is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the Census.
 NPR was first collected in 2010. It was updated in 2015 and already has details of 119 crore residents.
 The NPR is prepared under the 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.

Significance:
 It will streamline data of residents across various platforms
 The government can frame its policies better and also aid national security.
 It will help to target government beneficiaries in a better way and also further cut down paperwork and red tape in a similar manner that Aadhaar has done.
 It will help in implementing the idea of ‘One Identity Card’ that has been recently floated by the government.