NPR denies state governments access to its database

The Indian government had created NPR of the country's resident as a step towards the creation of National Register of Indian Citizens

Even as the Supreme Court is hearing petitions on Aadhaar, the privacy debate has now started playing out with the National Population Register (NPR) as well.

During the first phase of the 2011 Census, the Indian government had created a national population register (NPR) of the country's residents as a step towards the creation of National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC).

The NPR database contains identification of every individual for various government schemes/programmes.

The Register General and Census Commissioner of India is reported to have turned down state governments' requests for sharing NPR database, citing reasons such as privacy concerns.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan had asked for the NPR data to easily manage their welfare payments scheme because unlike Aadhaar, NPR provides more details about an individual, including family and occupation. This left the governments to use public distribution system's list of the beneficiary for identification and a much delay in letting loan waiver amounts off.

In a family where several members have taken farm loan, the integrity of the government's Rs 1.5 lakh loan waiver ceiling per family can be maintained only if different members of a family can be identified.

In an emailed exchange, reported Economic Times, a Maharashtra government secretary, VK Gautam, said: "We were denied access to Aadhaar linked household number from National Population Register on grounds of privacy. We took it as a constraint and devised non-Aadhaar-based data analytics."

Census department officials said till there was clarity from the Supreme Court and/or the Justice BN Srikrishna-led committee on privacy guidelines, no data will be shared, ET reported.

According to rules, it is mandatory for every Indian resident to register with NPR, with photograph and biometrics. But it was soon shifted below after the launch of Aadhaar.