The High-Level Committee on demographic changes has sought information from people and state and central government departments on unnatural demographic changes through a portal launched on Wednesday. These inputs will be used to develop a system for "identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants residing in the country".
Chairman of the Committee, Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar (Retd.), launched the dedicated digital web portal https://demography.mha.gov.in for public access, stakeholder submissions and data interaction.
"The portal facilitates the central government ministries/ departments, state/UT governments, NGOs/institutions and individuals to give inputs/data/information on unnatural demographic changes, its causes and underlying factors behind these changes, abnormal settlement pattern, etc," a government statement said.
It said the inputs will help the Committee to analyse and identify the causes of demographic changes and to recommend a well-organised and permanent operational system for the legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants residing in the country.
"The inputs will help the Committee to analyse and identify the causes of demographic changes and to recommend a well-organised and permanent operational system for the legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants residing in the country," a government statement said.
The Committee has posted an eight-point questionnaire on which information and documents on the unnatural demographic change can be provided.
The questions seeking details of "major demographic changes" in the last 15 years, major causes, the effect of these changes, challenges, recommendations, suggestions, etc can be answered with related documents on the portal.
The Committee had also written to states and Union Territories in July seeking "time series data" indicating changes over the years, besides other administrative data sets, along with the assessment of state governments of "major trends" in demographics and data on religious composition of tribal populations since 2011, they said.
The letter had asked the states and UTs to ensure data is collected from state districts to "the extent available in official records".
The states and UTs have been directed to provide "religion-wise and district-wise" data on birth registration for the last 15 years, besides any delayed registrations after the 21-day statutory period, cases of "suspected fraud" and institutional and non-institutional births, the sources said.
The governments have also been asked to furnish surveys conducted by them on religious structures like "temples, mosques, churches, etc, besides any sudden changes in the enrolment of Aadhaar, voter cards or ration cards", they said.
Details of religion-wise transport department data on vehicle registration, "sudden increase in commercial vehicle licences" in border districts, property transfer patterns in tribal areas, illegal transfers and encroachment of tribal land have also been sought.
Besides, the states have also been asked to furnish details of "educational institutions like government, aided, private religious" established in tribal areas during the last 15 years.
The administration's assessment of "impact on local demographic and social patterns" has also been sought.
One of the questions posed by the ministry seeks from the states and UTs "details of specific technical, intelligence-driven or community-led mechanisms used by local administration to detect and identify illegal migrants living inside established settlements", they said.
The Committee headed by Justice Prakash Prabhakar Navlekar (Retired) will scientifically assess the demographic changes occurring in various parts of the country due to illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons, analyse their causes and recommend appropriate policy and legislative and administrative measures, a government statement had said.