Centre Sets Up High Level Panel On Demographic Change To Tackle Infiltration
The move follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech in 2025, where he spoke about concerns surrounding demographic imbalance and promised a “High-Powered Demography Mission.”
NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that the Centre had constituted a high-level committee under retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar to assess demographic changes across India due to illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons, and to suggest measures to deal with these changes.
The government's move came after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement about the “high-powered demography mission” on August 15 last year and the Union Cabinet giving its approval on September 11, 2025.
In a message on 'X', Shah said infiltration and other reasons were causing "unnatural" demographic change, which posed a significant challenge to the present and future of any nation.
The home minister said the committee would include 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, will serve as the member secretary of this committee," he said.
Shah emphasised that demographic change was 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 said.
This committee would conduct a comprehensive assessment of the demographic changes occurring across India due to illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons. It will analyse the patterns of abnormal population changes at the level of religious and social communities and will present a well-planned and time-bound solution to address the issue.”
This high level panel will scientifically assess the demographic changes occurring in various parts of the country due to illegal immigration and other abnormal reasons, analyse their causes, and recommend appropriate policy, legislative, and administrative measures, the officials said.
