NRC is an abbreviation that stands for the ‘National Register of Citizens’. It identifies the illegal immigrants from Assam and later on from all over the country on the Supreme Court’s Order. This has been proposed to enable to identify the infiltrators who have been living in the country illegally from decades, to detain them and to deport them to the country from where they belong.
In this article we have covered the following points:
- History and background of the NRC
- Who are the people who stand to lose?
- What will happen to the people who are affected?
- Detention centers
- Will the people have to give proofs of being Indian?
- Do people have to provide ancestry documents?
- What if a person is poor or illiterate and has no knowledge of documents?
- A large number of people who have no homes or they are uneducated or carry any identity cards.
It is not a new thing that has suddenly erupted. It was first drafted in Mumbai which was published on 30th July 2018. The final list which was released on 31st August 2019 excluded over 19 Lakh people from Assam. And the government has also given 10 months of the window to the people who are missing from the final NRC to prove their citizenship.
What happened after partition and how it leads to the migration of the people from one country to another? Let’s take a tour of the history of the NRC. How it started and from it started.
In 1948, people were free to move from India to Pakistan and vice-versa till July 19, 1948, even after the partitions.
In 1950, the Immigrants Act came into existence from March 1, 1950, following the coming of refugees from then East Pakistan to Assam after partition.
In 1951, the first-ever NRC of India was published in Assam based on the Census Report of 1950.
In 1957, the Immigration Act was revoked.
In 1960, the bill was passed in Assam Legislative Assembly to make the Assamese only official language.
In 1964-65, the refugees of Pakistan came to India due to disturbance in that country.
In 1971, Bangladesh came into existence due to a riot in East Pakistan.
In 1979, the ‘Anti-foreigners’movement started in Assam.
In 1980, All Assam Students union submitted the first memorandum for demanding the updating of the NRC to center.
And various Amendments and Acts were made on the demands of the people of the Assam to expel the migrants in the governance of then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
In 2003, the Citizenship Amendment Act was introduced.
In between the time of 2003-2013, various changes occurred in the Amendments. And, In 2015, the process of updating NRC begins.
In 2016, BJP introduced Citizenship Amendment Bill. And proposed to Give Citizenship to non-Muslims minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
In 2017, in the midnight of December 31, Draft of the NRC published with names of 1.9 crores of the total of 3.29 crore applicants.
In 2018, another Draft NRC got published, over 40 lakh of 2.9 crore people got excluded. In 2019, on July 30th, an additional draft published with the Exclusion List of 1,02,462. On 31st August, the final NRC was published.
There are various questions are coming in the minds of the common people and they want to ask from the government. Like;
Who are the people who stand to lose?
This Bill will only affect the immigrants who have been illegally residing in our country. But Hindus, Sikh, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis who will come from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan won’t get affected if they will claim that they have arrived because of religious persecution. And it also means if any migrants from other than these three countries would be affected. And the people coming from these three countries who are Muslims will also get affected as they are mentioned in the Citizenship Amendment Act.
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What will happen to the
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people who are affected?
The people who will be affected will send to the detained centers, the same as happening in Assam. And then the Ministry of External Affairs will contact the concerned countries and ask them to accept the people who belong to that country. There are various detention centers in different states like Assam, Mumbai, Goa, and Karnataka.
Will the people have to give proofs of being Indian?
For now, there is no announcement has been made to start the process of NRC. But if it will be implemented then nobody will have to give proof of being Indian. According to the government, it is merely a process to register yourself in a Citizens’ register. Just like we register ourselves in the voter’s list, we present a Voter card or Aadhar card, the same we have to do while doing the registration of NRC.
The citizenship will get decided based on The Citizenship Rules, 2009. These rules are according to the Citizenship Act, 1985.
- Citizenship by Birth
- Citizenship by descent
- Citizenship by neutralization
- Citizenship by registration
- Citizenship by incorporations
It would be enough to provide your birthplace, date and month to get your citizenship done. But yet, it is not decided which document you will have to give, but the list will likely to add numerous documents so that the people of India will not have to face any difficulties.
Do people have to provide ancestry documents?
The answer is no, ancestry documents are only applicable for the Assam. For the rest of the country, the process of the NRC is completely different and it is based on the Citizenship Rules, 2003.
What if a person is poor or illiterate and has no knowledge of documents?
If a person is who has no documents to provide or if the person is illiterate who does not know the same, they will be asked to provide other evidence and community verification, etc. No, any citizen will face trouble during this procedure.
A large number of people who have no homes or they are uneducated or carry any identity cards.
Every citizen of India who has some documents based on that they give votes and somewhere they are in the records of the government, they don’t have to worry about this process.