NRC list: Family tree criteria led to 40 lakh missing names, says officials

Assam government officials believe that as many as 40 lakh names were missing from the draft National Register of Citizenship (NRC) due to the “family tree” criteria introduced to check the veracity of the claims for citizenship.

During the family tree verification, all legacy data submitted by the applicants were examined to check whether they are genuine to weed out claims of citizenship made just on the basis of domicile documents of self, their children and immediate parents, an Assam government insider said on condition of anonymity.

The applicants, as per the official NRC website, were asked to fill up a form to provide names of their family tree which included the grandparents, grandchildren etc. Each individual’s information was uploaded onto a software to check and verify all the forms submitted by the applicant. It would then generate a computerised family tree record of the submitted data which includes details of all persons who claim to be the children/grandchildren of the person against the legacy data code.


Though the exercise helped citizenship data collectors to segregate fabricated claims, many genuine applicants lost out in the race, said a senior state government official. Women were inadvertently the victims of this exercise. For instance, an outsider woman who married a local could not find her name in the draft NRC since she did not have legacy details to qualify, explained the senior officer quoted above.

While the political slugfest in Parliament is largely confined to Bangladeshi migrants, many Nepalese are facing similar problems since their families, which expanded after they came to Assam, do not have records to match the family tree requirement. People staying in Assam, who did not find their names in the draft NRC, are Indians, Nepaleseand Bangladeshis.

The 40 lakh figure is expected to come down after the scrutiny of process of “claims and objections” which would start from August 30 and end on September 30, hope officers involved in the updation of citizenship register. The process time, if needed, can be extended by a month, home ministry officials had stated earlier. The Union home ministry has also called a meeting next week of stakeholders, including from the registrar general of India and state representatives, to finalise the standard operating procedure (SOP) which has to be vetted by the Supreme Court which is hearing a petition on the NRC.

On July 30, the Registrar General of India Sailesh had announced in Guwahati that of the total 3,29,91,384 applicants, 2,89,83,677 people had made it to the draft NRC which is being updated under the supervision of Supreme Court.

After the final NRC is published, people would have the right to knock at the doors of the Foreigners’ Tribunal for settlement of their citizenship claims.