Advocacy & Government: The Nagaland government has decided to form a joint consultative committee (JCC) consisting of traditional tribal bodies and civil society organisations to undertake the exercise of preparing a Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN).
Headed by the state home commissioner Abhijit Sinha, the JCC will include members from the Central Nagaland Tribes’ Council, Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation, and the Tenyemie People’s Organisation. Members from other tribal bodies such as Nagaland Garo Tribal Council and Kuki Inpi Nagaland are also likely to be included later on.
The Nagaland government launched the RIIN in July 2019. It is seen as a variant of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) that excluded 19.06 lakh people out of about 3.3 crore applicants from the state. The exercise was put on hold after some groups opposed its stated objective of preventing outsiders from obtaining fake indigenous certificates to seek jobs and benefits of government schemes.
December 1st, 1963—the day Nagaland attained statehood—was set as the cut-off date for RIIN to determine the permanent residents of the state. Apart from non-Nagas, the term ‘outsiders’ also implies Nagas living in areas beyond the boundaries of Nagaland who might be left out of the RIIN.
Read this article to know more about the Citizen (Amendment) Act and its links to the National Register of Citizens (NRC).