More than 1000 women, across India, have asked Chief Ministers of every state to de-link the NPR and the Census, sending enumerators out only with the census schedule, here today.
Prominent women’s rights activists, including Annie Raja, Farah Naqvi, Anjali Bhardwaj, Vani Subramanian, Meera Sanghmitra, Mariam Dhawle, and Poonam Kaushik gathered signatures of women all over the nation stating that NPR presents a Clear Danger to Women.
The signatories include activists, writers, academics, lawyers, doctors, farmers, professionals, Anganwadi workers and women from all walks of life from more than 20 states.
Asserting themselves as Indian women who are opposed to the National Population Register (NPR), the letter then clearly conveys the necessity of such a collective move, stating that this opposition is based on clear evidence from their own lives.
“All women, irrespective of caste and religious community, will be affected by this new NPR-NRIC citizenship regime that puts our citizenship to test in a totally arbitrary and frightening manner,” said Farah Naqvi
Anjali Bhardwaj spoke of Section 14 A of the Citizenship Act, and the accompanying 2003 Rules, which clearly provide for using NPR data to compile the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), and give local registrars the power to mark people as ‘doubtful citizens.’
She said the Home Minister’s March 12th statement in Parliament that none will be marked “doubtful”, carries no legal sanctity, until the relevant statutes and rules are formally amended.
As available from sources, National Population Register (NPR) is scheduled to begin from April 1, 2020, along with house listing for the Census of India 2021, resolutions in the Legislative Assembly opposing CAA, NRC, NPR passed by many states will only remain a statement of expression. This instigated these women to demand their respective state governments to issue executive orders to de-link NPR and Census immediately, stated them in the Press conference
