No NRC so far, but an app is ready
Will help illiterate Muslims: Safiullah
Amid fears of the announcement of a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise, a Hyderabad-based engineer has made a mobile application that will allow people to validate their citizenship status by using the details of their certificates and documents. Named the ‘NRC APP’, it has been developed by Khalid Safiullah.
The app takes in the user’s name and other important details and returns information on the kind of documents he needs to prove citizenship for a hypothetical NRC exercise. The citizenship proof requirements are calculated based on a person’s date of birth and cross-referencing it with requirements mentioned in the current Citizenship Act. More importantly, the app asks users to enter names as mentioned in more than one document to see if they match. If the spellings don’t match, the user is told to rectify the problem as soon as possible. For the legal aspects, Mr Safiullah reportedly took the guidance of NALSAR ViceChancellor
Faizan Mustafa.
Mr Safiullah had earlier developed the app “Missing Voter” which was downloaded by over 1.5 lakh people, and reportedly helped thousands of people from around the country enrol in the voters’ list before this year’s Lok Sabha elections. He said he got the idea to develop the NRC APP several months ago, when the world was learning of the experiences of the people of Assam.
“Over 40 per cent of the Muslim population is illiterate and hence illequipped to handle NRC. Many of them don’t have documents. My app will tell them what they need to acquire to prove their citizenship without doubt. Of course, we don’t want an NRC to happen, but the urgency of the matter doesn’t allow for optimistic thinking. We have to mobilise if we want to stay safe. Many Muslims, Dalits and underprivileged communities will be made homeless if they are not prepared,” he said.
Mr Safiullah said he had visited Assam to research and understand the NRC exercise better. “I personally know of many lives that were destroyed by a few spelling mistakes in documents. A lot of people thought they would eventually get them corrected, but after the NRC was announced in Assam, there was a mad rush at government offices. Getting documents changed became impossible. We don’t want this problem here,” he said.
Since a nationwide NRC exercise has not been announced yet, Mr Safiullah based the app on the current Citizenship Act. “We are sure the BJP government will announce an NRC exercise sooner or later. When it does, I and a few of my volunteers will go through the requirements and update the app immediately. This will allow users to have an even clearer picture. For now, we are simply asking the people to stay safe,” he said.
The app was put on Play Store less than a week ago and by his admission, Mr Safiullah hasn’t started spreading the word yet. “I have a full-time job and I don’t have the resources to promote our app. But I have a loyal base who know me from the Missing Voters app, who will hopefully spread the word," he said.