Justice Nawalkar to Head Panel on Population Patterns
Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Amid growing concerns over illegal infiltration and its impact on India’s demographic balance, the Centre has constituted a High-Level Committee on Demographic Change to examine what the government describes as “unnatural demographic shifts” across the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day last year, has now formally been set up to study the impact of illegal immigration and other factors affecting demographic patterns in various regions.
Headed by Justice Prakash Prabhakar Nawalkar (Retd), the panel will comprise the Census Commissioner, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, former IPS officer Balaji Srivastava and economist Dr Shamika Ravi. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I) in the Union Home Ministry will function as the Member Secretary.
The committee has been tasked with conducting a comprehensive assessment of demographic changes linked to infiltration and other “unnatural causes”, particularly in sensitive border and tribal regions.
The panel will examine abnormal population shifts among religious and social communities and recommend planned, time-bound measures to address the issue.
The government has termed demographic change a matter directly linked to national security, sovereignty, law and order, social stability and the protection of tribal societies.
The move comes amid increasing political debate over illegal immigration and changing population patterns in several states, especially in eastern and northeastern India.