India to address ‘unnatural demographic change’
India has formed a high-level committee to study the demographic changes driven by illegal immigration and to suggest measures to address the challenges it poses, fulfilling a pledge made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
Modi had, in his Independence Day speech last year, said a “high-powered demography mission” would be set up as he warned of a “premeditated conspiracy” that was altering India’s demography and threatening national security.
Announcing the constitution of the panel on Tuesday, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah called “unnatural demographic change” a “very big challenge.” The 5-member High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC) will be headed by a former judge of India’s Supreme Court.
No reliable figures exist on the number of illegal immigrants to India, but cross-border immigration and resultant demographic changes have increased socio-political tensions in much of eastern and north-eastern India.
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Most such illegal immigrants are from Bangladesh, seeking jobs to escape the grinding poverty in their home country. Political instability in Myanmar has also increased immigration across the border to India.
Tensions between India and Bangladesh has risen recently following a crackdown on illegal immigration by the government of the West Bengal state in eastern India. Prime Minister Modi’s BJP came to power in West Bengal following the recent elections, and the state government has vowed to deport thousands of illegal immigrants back to Bangladesh.
Shah said the committee will analyze the “abnormal population changes at the level of religious and social communities” and offer a time-bound solution to the issue within a year.
Shah had said last year that the decadal growth of the Muslim population in Assam state, which shares a border with Bangladesh, was 29%, reported The Hindu.
The HLCDC is also tasked with suggesting a clear and permanent system for identifying, detaining, and deporting illegal immigrants. Strengthening border control, population monitoring, and policy formation to improve coordination between the federal and state governments on illegal immigration and demographic imbalance are also in its purview.
