Over 19 lakh excluded from final National Register of Citizens (NRC)

The final version of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) for Assam was released on August 31, 2019. It contains the names of 3,11,21,004 of the total of 3,30,27,661 people who had applied for inclusion in the document. The 19,06,657 people excluded make up 46.39% of the 41.09 lakh people who were left out of the draft list published on July 30, 2018, and an additional list a year later.

• The first draft released on December 31, 2017, included 1.9 crore names out of a total applicant pool of 3.29 crore. The final draft was released on July 30, 2018 which left out 40.07 lakh people wherein 2.89 crore people were found eligible out of 3.29 crore applicants.
• The NRC was updated in Assam for the first time after 1951 to identify those who may have entered the state after March 25, 1971, a date agreed in the Assam Accord signed between the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Centre in 1985. A new section 6A was included in the Citizenship Act 1955 to update the NRC.
• The names of those who can prove links with family members whose names appeared in the 1951 NRC or subsequent electoral rolls till March 25, 1971 were included in the updated NRC.

What is NRC?

• The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is the register containing details of all Indian citizens. After conducting the Census of 1951, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was prepared by recording particulars of all the persons enumerated during the 1951 Census.
• The NRC was updated to include the names of those people or their descendants who appear in the NRC, 1951, or in any of the electoral rolls up to the midnight of March 24, 1971, or in any one of the other admissible documents issued upto midnight of March 24, 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before March 24, 1971.
• All the names appearing in the NRC, 1951, or any of the Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of 24th March 1971 together are called Legacy Data.
• The NRC updation started in 2010 after a tripartite agreement signed between the Centre and the state government and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on May5, 2005. But it was formally started after Supreme Court order in 2013.
• In order to wean out cases of illegal migration from Bangladesh and other adjoining areas, NRC updation was carried out under The Citizenship Act, 1955, and according to rules framed in the Assam Accord.