Indian President appeals to citizens to enroll in biometric registery

Under the Citizenship Act 1955 and Citizenship Rules 2003, the citizen registration under the National Population Register (NPR) is mandatory for all residents of India.

Smt. Pratibha Patil, President of India, submitted her biometrics data at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential residence on July 6, 2012, in the presence of the team headed by Union Home Secretary Shri R.K. Singh, with Census Commissioner Dr. C. Chandramouli, Deputy Director General (NPR) Shri S.K. Chakrabarti and Director of Census Operation (Delhi) Smt. Varsha Joshi.

“It gives me great pleasure to enroll for the NPR exercise. I appeal to all the citizens of India to enroll themselves earliest, as it is not just a matter of right but their duty as well,” President Patil said after her biometric enrollment.

The NPR is a comprehensive identity database maintained by the Registrar General and Census Commission under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is the government’s biometric flagship program. Activities include house-to-house enumeration, digitization of data collected, and now, biometric enrollment. Once collected, NPR biometric will be sent to the Unified Identification Authority of India for de-duplication and provision of UID numbers, known as Aadhar. The government also proposed to issue “smart” resident identity cards utilizing the NPR.

Will India’s citizens respond faster to having their biometrics data collected, now that their President has done so?

Article Topics

biometrics  |  border control  |  fingerprint  |  identity proofing  |  iris recognition  |  national ID  |  privacy