Issues regarding NPR

♤ Privacy issue: Even as issues of privacy associated with Aadhaar continue to be debated in the country, the NPR is on a drive to collect detailed data on residents of India. There is as yet no clarity on the mechanism for protection of this vast amount of data.

o In the past, reports have stated that Aadhaar data has been compromised on multiple occasions even as the UIDAI continues to deny that there have been breaches.

♤ Legality of sharing data: Both the legality of the UID and NPR collecting data and biometrics has been questioned. For example, it has been pointed out that the collection of biometric information through the NPR, is beyond the scope of subordinate legislation.

♤ National security: It can raise national security threats, given the size of the databases that will be created, the centralized nature of the databases, the sensitive nature of the information held in the databases, and the involvement of international agencies.

♤ Issues similar to NRC: NPR will be the base for a nationwide National Register of Citizens and will be similar to the list of citizens of Assam. During the NRC exercise, there were

several instances where some members of a family featured in the draft list while the others did not.

♤ Duplication of projects: It is unclear why the government would feel the need to subject India’s citizenry to another identification drive when over 90 per cent of them are covered by Aadhaar, which was an elaborate, time-consuming exercise.

o With these multiple projects like Aadhar, NRC, NPR, census etc it has created confusion regarding the idea of citizenship in the country.

♤ Uncounted people: The census does not cover the entire population, which leaves unanswered the questions of the status of those citizens who are not visited by a census officer.

o It also leaves ambiguity over migrant labour, who may well be citizens but would not

qualify as “usual residents”.

The Centre has made it clear that the home ministry-run population register should not expect the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to give it the biometric data of millions of people, collected for the purpose of obtaining the 12-digit Aadhaar number. As of now, NPR’s funding has been stopped by the government and is as good as dead.