NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday directed the high-level committee on demographic change to study the shift in population structure in border districts, officials said. Chairing the meeting of the committee, Shah also asked it to visit border areas, metro cities and industrial towns for an assessment of changes because of illegal migration and other unnatural causes, they said. The Home Ministry had formed the high-level committee to assess demographic changes across India due to “illegal immigration and other unnatural causes” and suggest measures to address these challenges. The Committee is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar and includes the census commissioner, along with retired IAS officer Durga Shankar Mishra, ex-IPS officer Balaji Srivastava and Dr Shamika Ravi as members. The joint secretary (foreigners-l), ministry of home affairs, is the member secretary of this committee. Announcing the formation of the committee last month, Shah had emphasised that demographic change is a serious issue linked not only to the country’s sovereignty but also to national security, law and order, profound changes in social structure and the preservation of tribal society. “This committee will conduct a comprehensive assessment of demographic changes occurring across India due to illegal immigration and other unnatural causes, analyse patterns of abnormal population shifts at the levels of religious and social communities, and present a planned and time-bound solution for the same,” he had said. The high-level committee will conduct a scientific evaluation of the demographic changes taking place in different regions of the country due to illegal immigration and other unusual factors, examine their causes, and suggest suitable policy, legislative and administrative interventions, a government statement had said. According to the Terms of Reference of the committee, it will comprehensively deliberate upon the challenges arising from demographic changes, including illegal immigration. It will also study the possible causes of demographic changes, such as cross-border activities (including illegal immigration), economic opportunities, and other socio-environmental factors, the statement said. The panel will also identify the underlying factors behind these changes, which include illegal immigration, abnormal settlement patterns and orchestrated migration, it said. Further, the committee will analyse structural population changes at the level of religious or social communities, particularly where they deviate from broader trends. It will recommend a streamlined and permanent operational mechanism for the legal, fair, and time-bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing in the country, the statement had said. PTI
