With only three weeks to go for work on the National Population Register (NPR) to begin, the fate of the project hangs in the balance.

What is planned is the second NPR. The first was prepared in 2011 based on information gathered during the decennial census of that year.

The Congress-led Manmohan Sigh government, which conceived the NPR project, claimed it would yield data on manpower which will help improve the planning process.

However, a recent study found that only five of more than two dozen states actually used NPR data to draw up development schemes.

The Manmohan Singh government had said data gathered for NPR would not be used for any other purpose. It, however, made the data available to the Unique Identification Authority of India set up to issue Aaadhar identity cards.

Narendra Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time, was critical of both NPR and Aadhar. Today, as the Prime Minister, he is an enthusiastic promoter of both.

India has been conducting census operations once every 10 years since Independence, continuing a practice the colonial administration had begun in late 19th century. There have been occasions when they could not be conducted in one state or another because of disturbed conditions.

The next census is due in 2021. The long-drawn-out process of gathering information for preparation of the census report is due to begin on April 1 with enumerators visiting homes across the country.

On the appointed day, the enumerators visit the homes again to update the information so that the census report provides the correct data as on that day.

If there is to be a new NPR, work on that must also begin on April 1.

The Registrar General of India, a Central government official, is the authority responsible for the conduct of the census operations. But enumeration is done by state government employees who are drafted for the purpose. The Centre just cannot undertake the massive operation without the cooperation of the states.

The Census Act of 1948 casts an obligation on all residents of India to provide correct information to the enumerators. Failure to do so can invite penalties.

All state governments have affirmed readiness to play their part in the census operations. But several states have expressed reservations on participation in the NPR process.

Opposition to NPR stems from the fear that the government will misuse information gathered in the process in the preparation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

While piloting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Home Minister Amit Shah had told Parliament that the government proposed to prepare NRC in every state to identify and throw out all illegal immigrants.

Following complaints of widespread illegal immigration from East Pakistan at the time of Partition and again during the army crackdown there, decades ago the Centre had agreed to draw up a National Register of Citizens in Assam. What the Assamese wanted was identification and expulsion of non-Assamese. After Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the Centre and in Assam, the exercise acquired a religious dimension.

The enactment of CAA, which provides for grant of citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants, heightened fears that the Modi administration would use the nationwide NRC project to disenfranchise Muslims in keeping with the Hindutva concept of India as a Hindu nation.

Opposition to CAA, which began spontaneously in different places, soon grew into a mass movement against NPR and NRC as well.

As protests spread across the country, the Centre sought to contain the opposition by asserting that the new law applies only to refugees seeking citizenship and no Indian Muslim would lose citizenship.

The statement is true, as far as it goes. But it was not enough to allay fears as the introduction of religion in determination of citizenship had aggravated suspicions about the government’s intentions.

The United Nations and various other entities abroad termed CAA discriminatory.

Domestic critics view it as one that strikes at the root of the concepts of secularism and democracy enshrined in the Constitution. A campaign is on to defeat the move through a Gandhian programme of non-cooperation.

If all the states do not cooperate and a significant section of the population refuses to cooperate with the process NPR is bound to fail.

The Centre must act fast to remove the people’s misgivings if it wants to avert the exercise resulting in a document with incomplete data which cannot serve the intended purpose.