SRINAGAR: In a surprising turn of events, the Jammu and Kashmir police have launched a comprehensive “census’ to collect personal data, including details of foreign visits and suspected links to militant groups, from residents of the region.
This initiative has raised concerns about its legality, possible misuse and constitutionality.
While the rest of India postponed its national census due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and then the general elections, Jammu and Kashmir launched its census drive, raising concerns about its legality and purpose.
Under the Indian Census Act, only the office of the Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner is authorised to conduct a census.
The Census Act, of 1948 specifically prohibits other agencies, including state governments or private organisations, from conducting censuses or population enumerations on their own. In addition, the Act guarantees the confidentiality of the information provided by respondents and prohibits its use as evidence in court.
Experts are, therefore, of the opinion that the involvement of the Jammu and Kashmir Police in this census is questionable as it contradicts the existing legal framework.
While the amended census rules allow researchers access to micro-data, they stipulate that it must be anonymised and the use of sensitive and personal information must be restricted.
Therefore, according to legal experts, the recent actions of the Jammu and Kashmir Police violate these legal requirements.
Forms distributed by the police stations
Residents in the Kashmir Valley have reported that police officers have been visiting households, distributing forms and asking residents to provide personal information.
The forms distributed by the police, obtained by Kashmir Times, ask for detailed information about the head of the family, family members living outside the region, their ages, contact details, Aadhar numbers, vehicle registrations, information about CCTV cameras installed and enquiries about family members associated with militant activities.
Residents must also provide photographs and the longitude and latitude coordinates (geo-tagging) of their residences.
The lack of transparency in the operation has unsettled many residents in the region. It is still unclear under what authority this operation is being carried out and its actual purpose.
The forms distributed by various police stations bear the heading “Census 2024” and are labelled with the name of the respective police station or the police post. Although the forms issued by the various police stations differ slightly, the information requested from residents is standardised.
Despite the fears and anxieties associated with this action, few residents are willing to speak openly about it. Many fear consequences if they resist or voice their concerns publicly. The invasive nature of the questions and the intrusion into private lives have left residents deeply unnerved.
Official Defence
The government has argued that the “Census 2024” is aimed at minimising property damage and protecting residents in case of security incidents or law and order situations.
According to the government, the data collected will help security forces obtain accurate information and complement the army exercise that has already been completed. The police have also stated that the operation will facilitate services such as passport verification.
An unnamed senior police official was quoted in a report by the Indian Express as describing the operation as a “census” conducted “every four years.”
It says that the sources within the security apparatus suggest that similar surveys have been taking place since 2019, but are now being systematically organised due to the increase in targeted killings.
Personal data gathering the past
This is not the first time that such data collection initiatives have caused concern in the region. Last year, a similar “census” form distributed in Srinagar led to allegations of political profiling by security agencies.
Some residents in Jammu earlier had even taken matters into their own hands and resisted a similar “census” conducted by officials from a private agency. In November 2023, residents in a locality stopped and chased away people claiming to be officials of the Jammu Municipal Corporation. The incident was shared on social media platforms, highlighting the sensitivity of such data collection.
During the height of militancy in the 1990s, the army and the Border Security Force used to conduct door-to-door surveys to maintain a database of all households and monitor the movements of residents to gather information on militant groups.
Since 2019, the security apparatus has been involved in creating databases on prominent citizens, especially journalists, academics and activists. Since September 2021, many journalists in Kashmir were asked to provide personal information, leading to allegations of harassment and intimidation.
Police set up several wings for surveilling and monitoring journalists, activists and academics. One such section, ‘Dial 100’, works on the ‘background updation’ of journalists, which includes verifying their entire professional career in the media, including their body of work, family relations, foreign travels and so on. Another wing of the investigation called the ‘Ecosystem of Narrative Terrorism’ profiles the media persons, civil society activists and intellectuals and monitors their body of work.
This is, however, the first time a data base of an entire population is being created by the security agencies in an expansive and systemic way.
Unconstitutional, Violation of Fundamental Rights
Data protection experts and civil rights activists have sharply criticised the “Census 2024”, describing it as an unconstitutional expansion of police powers and the creation of a surveillance state.
Speaking with the Kashmir Times, Amnesty International India Chair, Aakar Patel, said that by demanding such information, “the Indian state is running roughshod over the rights and dignity of Kashmiris by demanding such information.”
“Unwilling to conduct a national census, the Union government is sending out absurd and humiliating documents to families, a violation of their fundamental rights to privacy and dignity,” he said.
Renowned data protection expert, Usha Ramanathan, pointed out that the extensive data collection violates citizens’ constitutional rights to privacy.
Ramanathan emphasised that the state collects personal information in unprecedented detail, enabling the creation of profiles for each individual. She drew parallels with the controversial Aadhar system, which began as a voluntary ID Card programme but then became mandatory, leading to numerous problems and privacy concerns.
About the police-led census, Ramanathan questioned what legitimate state objective could justify such a comprehensive measure and criticised the lack of information about the data collection and its potential use.
She argued that the operation created an intrusive surveillance mechanism that gave the state unprecedented access with 360 degrees view of each person to citizens’ lives.
“That it is being done by the police without even the minimum protections and without a mention of law under which this exercise is being conducted adds a deeply disturbing dimension to it,” Ramanathan told the Kashmir Times.
The range of questions speak of “suspicion of a community of people in the eyes of the state,” she added.
Privacy advocates argue that this data collection represents an unconstitutional expansion of police powers and the potential creation of a surveillance state. As the debate continues, residents of the region remain concerned about the true motives behind this controversial census operation.
Census law
The Census Act of 1948 is so clear in its powers that when the Bihar state government announced the conducting of the caste census, it was challenged in court as the state government is not authorised to conduct censuses. Hence, the government had to change the name and call it a socio-economic survey rather than a census.
The Act also lays down clear guidelines for a census.
Section 3 states, “The Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare its intention to conduct a census in the whole or any part of the area covered by this Act whenever it considers it necessary or desirable to do so and thereupon the census shall be conducted.”
Section 4 deals with the appointment of Census Commissioners and Census Officers. Section 4(3) states that “A declaration in writing signed by an authority authorised by the State Government in this behalf that a person has been duly appointed as census Commissioner for a particular area shall be conclusive evidence of such appointment.”
No such gazette notification has been issued and no officers, let alone police officers, have been nominated in writing as Census Officers.
The last census in Jammu and Kashmir, as in the rest of India, was conducted in 2011.
Last month, the Registrar General of India (RGI) extended the deadline for the freezing of administrative boundaries to 30 June 2024.
Finalising the changes in administrative boundaries in villages, development blocks, sub-divisions and districts is an important preparatory step for a census. Normally, there are three months between the reorganisation of boundaries and the start of the census.
If the current operation of the Jammu and Kashmir Police is a regular census, none of the statutory requirements have been met.
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