Demography Panel Seeks 15 Years of Religion-Wise Data from States

New Delhi, September 29, 2026: A Union government panel examining demographic changes has sought 15 years of religion-wise and district-wise data from States on vehicle registrations, school enrolment, property transactions and voter registrations, while officials have pointed to difficulties in compiling information that government departments do not ordinarily maintain by religion.

The High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC), headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar, has sent a 35-question questionnaire to State governments seeking information on demographic trends, migration and related administrative issues. The committee was constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 26 to study demographic changes arising from illegal immigration and other specified causes and suggest measures to address them.

According to a report in The Hindu, officials said that, apart from some information such as birth registration and records concerning undocumented migrants, most departments do not routinely maintain the requested data according to religious categories.

The questionnaire seeks district-wise data for the past 15 years on births, including delayed registrations and institutional and non-institutional births, vehicle registrations, commercial vehicle licences, school enrolment and property transactions.

States have also been asked to report unusual increases in Aadhaar enrolments, voter identity cards and ration cards, as well as cases involving forged identity documents.

The panel has sought information on religious structures established during the period, including temples, mosques and churches, and whether they have been mapped through geographical information systems or other technologies.

The data is sought separately for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Buddhists.

Focus on tribal areas

The questionnaire also asks States to report changes in the religious composition of districts, with particular attention to cities, industrial centres, border districts and tribal areas, including regions covered by the Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Constitution.

States have been asked to provide studies, commission reports, intelligence assessments and other documents concerning changes in the religious composition of Scheduled Tribe populations. The panel has also sought information on reported religious conversions among tribal communities, including district-wise trends, stated reasons and action taken by State authorities.

Another set of questions concerns educational institutions in tribal-dominated districts, including government, private and religious institutions, as well as the mapping of religious educational establishments such as madrasas.

Voter data and migration

The committee has sought district-wise, religion-wise and year-wise voter registration data for the past 15 years, with particular attention to voters who lack previous-generation birth certificates or family records.

It has also asked States for information on undocumented migration, including identification, detention and deportation, forged documents and cases involving alleged links with organised crime, human trafficking or narcotics offences.

States have been asked to outline measures taken to address unauthorised migration and settlement and to suggest possible legislative measures concerning what the questionnaire describes as “abnormal religious demographic change.”

The committee has so far visited the Jammu region and is scheduled to visit Maharashtra, while responses from several State governments are still awaited, according to The Hindu. The report also said the Election Commission had not yet provided the panel with data on people excluded from Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls on grounds of suspected foreign nationality.

The exercise has brought into focus both the scope of the committee’s mandate and the practical difficulty of compiling religion-disaggregated administrative data across government departments. The Ministry of Home Affairs has officially confirmed the constitution of the committee under Justice Naolekar and its mandate to examine demographic changes linked to illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons.

Source: The Hindu