Context: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) launched a portal to seek public inputs on demographic changes, preferably since 2011.
- Committee: High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC).
- Chairperson: Former Supreme Court judge Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar.
- Constituted: May 26; examines the nature, causes and consequences of demographic changes.
- Coverage: Border districts, urban centres, industrial corridors, tribal regions and other sensitive areas.
- Stated concerns: Illegal immigration, irregular population mobility and administrative laxity; the committee seeks to assess their effects on governance, public services, resource distribution and social cohesion.
- Objective: Recommend a permanent operational mechanism for the lawful, fair and time-bound identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.
- Respondents: Government bodies, State/UT administrations, civil society, NGOs, academia, industry, international organisations, think tanks and individuals.
- Portal: demography.mha.gov.in; collects respondents’ contact details and consent for personal-data processing.
- Census 2011: India’s last completed decennial population census; the Census Act, 1948 provides the legal framework for conducting the census.
- Migration vs. natural population growth: Demographic change can result from migration, fertility and mortality; these factors must be distinguished when interpreting population trends.
