National register of citizen (NRC or NRIC) is a register maintained by the government of India, which contains the names and identification of Indian citizens. This register was prepared in 1951 after census of 1951. Since then it is not updated.

Indian State Assam is a very first state to update NRC in order to identify illegal immigrants residing in the state. The NRC in Assam has created insecurity among Muslims across India as the Home Minister has said many times that NRC will be implemented all over India. The NRC criteria for rest of India will be different from Assam. NRC is closely linked to Indian citizenship act 1955. The Act defines who are Indian and who are eligible to be Indian. Citizenship can be defined as “right to have a right ”. Fundamental rights granted by constitution is for Indian citizens, right to vote is for Indian citizens. So if citizenship is revoked then all the rights and protection granted by the Constitution and Indian law will also be denied. If citizenship is abolished then person will be stateless.

The legislation related Citizenship is governed by Articles 5 to 11 (Part II) of the Constitution of India. The Citizenship Act of 1955, has been amended by the Citizenship (Amendment) Acts of 1986, 1992, 2003, 2005, and 2015. Article 3 of The Citizenship Act of 1955 defines provision for being Indian citizen:

1-A person who born in India between 26 January 1950 to 1st July 1987 is a Indian citizen.

2-A person born in india between 1st July 1987 to 2nd December 2004 Indian if one of his/her parents are Indian.

3-A person born in India after 22 December 2004 is Indian if both the parents are Indian. So nrc will be dependent on these provisions of “citizenship act 1955” in India.

The Indian Citizenship Amendment Bill was proposed in Lok Sabha on 19 July 2016, amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 is discriminatory towards the Muslims. If this Bill is passed in Parliament, illegal migrants from minority communities like Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan will then be eligible for Indian citizenshipbut excluding Muslim community. The Bill relaxes the 11 year requirement of residing in India to 6 years for the above migrants to India.

An article in the Wire (21^st November 2019) (https://thewire.in/government/india-assam-nrc-documents)  has put together the list of documents required in Assam copied below in italics

To pass the NRC in Assam required any one of the following documents

• 1951 NRC
• Electoral roll(s) up to 24 March (midnight), 1971
• Land and tenancy records
• Citizenship certificate
• Permanent residential certificate
• Refugee registration certificate
• Any government issued license/certificate
• Government service/ employment certificate
• Bank or post office accounts
• Birth certificate
• State educational board or university educational certificate
• Court records/processes
• Passport
• Any LIC policy

In many cases one person has been declared illegal while the rest of family is pass. children are considered illegal but their parents are found legal in many cases. Spelling mistakes have resulted in people being sent to detention camps.

The people who will be most affected by NRC are the poor who do not have documents to prove their birth in the country because of home deliveries and not having been to school. There are people whose houses get flooded or demolished and they don’t have any document or lost their documents so what will happen to them after NRC? If the proposed amendment in the Citizenship Act is passed, Muslims will suffer. Some Muslims are calling for Gandhian civil disobedience against a communal citizenship test with the #BoycottNRC Read more here (https://scroll.in/article/944594/boycottnrc-muslims-are-calling-for-gandhian-civil-disobedience-against-a-communal-citizenship-test?fbclid=IwAR2__mBG3y_kehkfLJx5kue8bS7QfciG2a917lRruRaXxOaW2W8hajLCHqE) . It is time we all come together against the NRC.