Conundrum over demography panel’s questionnaire seeking extensive data | Explained
A government committee in India is facing criticism for requesting granular, religion-wise demographic data that state officials claim is not available in existing administrative records. The committee is tasked with studying demographic changes related to illegal immigration.
Why it matters
The request highlights tensions regarding data privacy, administrative capacity, and the potential for political polarization in demographic data collection.
The story so far: The Hindu had reported on September 28, 2026 that a High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC), constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has sent State governments a 35-point questionnaire seeking extensive data on demographic changes over the past 15 years.
A significant portion of the information has been sought both district-wise and religion-wise, covering Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis.
The questions seek religion-wise break up of birth registrations, school enrolment, ration cards, vehicle registrations, property transactions and voter registrations. The committee has also asked States to identify unusual increases in Aadhaar enrolments, voter IDs and ration cards and furnish information about forged identity documents.
But State government officials say much of this data simply does not exist in the form in which it has been sought. Administrative databases ordinarily do not classify citizens by religion across many of these categories.
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