The Union government on Tuesday set up a high-level committee on demographic changes taking place because of alleged “illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons”.
The panel, which will report to the Union home ministry, will study the nature, causes and consequences of demographic changes “occurring across the country”. It will also recommend policy, administrative and legal measures.
This committee will submit its report within one year, the government said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in a social media post that “unnatural demographic change” caused by “infiltration and other reasons” constitutes a big challenge for any country.
“Demographic change is a serious problem linked not only to our sovereignty but also to national security, law and order, major changes in social structure, and the protection of tribal societies,” Shah said.
The panel will analyse the “patterns of abnormal population changes at the level of religious and social communities” and will present solutions to address the problem, he added.
The committee will be chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar.
It will include the census commissioner, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, former Bureau of Police Research and Development chief Balaji Srivastava and Shamika Ravi, who is a member of the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council. The joint secretary (foreigners-I) of the Union home ministry will be the member secretary of the panel.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a “High-powered Demography Mission” on August 15.
The committee’s mandate
The panel has been asked to examine the challenges arising from demographic changes, including undocumented migration, “abnormal settlement patterns” and “orchestrated migration”, the Union home ministry said.
The committee will analyse “structural population changes at the level of religious or social communities, particularly where they deviate from broader trends”.
It has been tasked with recommending a “streamlined and permanent” operational mechanism for the “legal, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing” in India.
The panel will also recommend mechanisms to strengthen the management of borders, stabilisation of the population and systems to monitor the trends.
The terms of reference of the committee include proposing a policy framework “to enhance coordination between the central and state governments on matters related to illegal immigration and the resulting demographic imbalances”.
Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.
|
