States caught off guard by demographic panel seeking religious data on vehicles, schools and voters

State governments are unable to answer most of the questions raised by the high-level panel studying demographic change because government departments typically do not maintain much of the information the panel sought on religious grounds.

The High Level Committee on Demographic Change (HLCDC) has sought religious data on births and vehicle registrations, school enrollments and real estate transactions, as well as district-wise details of religious structures and the unusual rise in Aadhaar, voter ID and ration card registrations over the past 15 years. It also sought intelligence assessments and commission reports on religious conversions among Scheduled Tribe communities and details of operational detention centers, among other information.

State government officials told The Hindu that the set of 35 questions asked by the committee were difficult to answer because the secular construction of the Constitution prohibited the collection of data under religious categories. Apart from birth registration, where the religion of the newborn is listed on the certificate, and the number of undocumented migrants detained or deported, data on religion was not available for all other categories, officials said.

States were asked to collect data on Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims, Parsis and Buddhists in all categories.

As the main opposition in 2006, the Bharatiya Janata Party opposed the recommendations of the Sachar Commission, questioning their constitutional validity, saying they enforced religious quotas and were socially divisive. The commission was appointed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2005 to examine the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community.

Headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, the HLCDC was set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 26 to study demographic changes due to illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons and to suggest measures to address these demographic changes. Photo: sci.gov.in

One of the HLCDC’s questions reads: “Details of districts showing unusual school enrollment trends that are inconsistent with historical birth rates, along with reasons.” Another seeks district-level data on religious structures (temples, mosques, churches, etc.) established in the last 15 years, including details of any GIS mapping or other technology used to identify them.

The committee also sought data on county, religious and annual voter registration data for the last 15 years for individuals “without previous generation birth certificates or family heritage records, including observed trends and concentrations.”

The committee sought district-wise data on changes in religious composition, particularly in cities, industrial centres, border districts, tribal areas and fifth/sixth plan areas. It also requested state studies, intelligence assessments, commission reports and white papers examining demographic change.

States were asked to provide information on changes in the religious composition of the Scheduled Tribe population and any studies or intelligence assessments regarding religious conversion among tribal communities, including reasons, trends and measures taken.

Religious and district birth registration information was also sought, including late registrations and institutional/non-institutional births. It also sought data on the unusual rise in Aadhaar enrollments, voter IDs and ration cards and cases involving forged identity documents.

The questionnaire requested 15 years of religious and county data on transport and non-transport vehicle registrations, as well as unusual increases in commercial vehicle licenses, particularly in border and highly urbanized counties.

The committee asked for religious details of real estate transactions and information on unusual land acquisitions, demographic clustering and ownership patterns. Separate issues relate to tribal land transfers, illegal transfers and encroachment on tribal and scheduled areas.

States were also asked to provide information on religious distribution of ration cards and school enrolments, fraudulent access to welfare programmes, unusual school enrollment patterns and government, private and religious educational institutions in tribal areas. The questionnaire also asks about GIS mapping of religious educational institutions, including madrasas.

States must also provide information on detention centers, identification, detention and deportation/repatriation of undocumented migrants, cases involving forged documents and cases linking irregular migrants to organized crime, human trafficking or narcotics offences. Another question concerns the intelligence, technical and community mechanisms used to identify undocumented migrants.

The committee also asked states what policy directives, executive orders, or changes to land and municipal laws they have implemented over the past 15 years to curb unauthorized migration and settlement. It also sought suggestions on whether new legislation was needed to strengthen oversight and take action to “reverse abnormal religious demographic changes”.

The questionnaire seeks to gather information on five broad areas – demographic trends, migration, administrative challenges, institutional mechanisms, studies and measures taken by States/UTs.

On 27 May, the Supreme Court, while upholding the Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise in Bihar, said that the Election Commission of India (EC) has limited powers to verify citizenship in determining inclusion or exclusion from the electoral roll. The court directed the EC to forward the names of voters who were part of the 2003 electoral roll but were purged in the Bihar SIR on grounds of non-citizenship to the center within the next four weeks for consideration by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Government sources told The Hindu that the EC is yet to provide the data to the committee. The committee has so far visited the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and is planning another visit to Maharashtra.

“We have not yet received a response from the state governments. A meeting was held with EC officials last week, but they have not yet provided data on people expelled from the SIR due to the suspicion that foreign nationals are staying there illegally,” said a member of the committee on condition of anonymity. The EC did not respond to queries from The Hindu regarding the reasons for the delay in submitting the data to the committee.