The most debated topic of India’s politics is CAB (Citizen amendment Bill) which was passed by both of the houses of parliament and now the big controversy is following between National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register. And many people are still confused in the difference between NRC and NPR, So here we go with the difference in NPC AND NRP.

What is NRC?

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by The Citizenship Act 1955 as amended in 2003. It has been implemented for the state of Assam between 2013–2014. The government plans to implement it for the rest of India in 2021.

What is NPR?

It is a register of the usual resident of the country. It is being prepared at the local, sub-district, district, state and national levels under provisions of the citizen act 1955 and citizenship.

      Difference between NRC and NPR? 

• NRC: it is the register which keeps a record of all the citizens of the country.
• NPR: whereas it is the register which keeps a record of the residents of the country.

Note: there is a major difference between a resident of the country and a citizen of the country. A resident is one who lives in the country meanwhile citizen is the one who claims the citizenship of the country.

Authenticity of NRC Vs. authenticity of NPR

• NRC: it is considered to be the most authentic data as it helps our government to identify the number of citizens a number of illegal migrants.
• NPR: it is considered less authentic as it only registers the population of the country which also includes illegal migrants and usual residents.

NOTE: NPR provides the primacy database to NRC which further helps them to register the citizens.

 Documentation of NRC Vs. documentation of NPR

 NRC: proper documentation is required to get yourself registered in NRC. That is if a person is a citizen of India he or she should

1. Be citizen by birth.

2. Citizen by marriage.

3. Be citizen by naturalization which is a legal migrant.

4. Be an economic citizen.

3.NPR: no proper documentation is required to register NPR. It is the only count of the population that doesn’t require any proof to be a citizen.

NOTE: but during NPR if the agent is suspicious about the citizenship of a particular resident, the agent can spam the names of such residents and then NRC agents inspect the spam list properly.

• On 24 December 2019, the Union Cabinet approved  3,941 crores for updating the National Population Register (NPR), one of the first steps in implementing the NRC. The NPR is scheduled to take place in April 2020.
•  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 December 2019 said, “There has been no discussion on NRC anywhere we only had to implement it in Assam to follow Supreme Court directives.”

On 31 July 2019, the Registrar General of Citizen Registration had issued the notification to prepare and update the NPR. The timeline for this was announced to be between 1 April 2020 and 30 September 2020. As per the NPR exercise, an enumeration will be carried out, throughout the country (except Assam) by visiting every house for “collection of information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of the Local Registrar“.

Amit Shah on NRC and NPR?

After this speech of PM Modi, Amit Shah flipped and made an unofficial announcement of not implementing NCR.

Still, there is a lot of confusion and protest going on in the country about NRC AND NPR. All we can do for now is to be patient and see what comes next.