ALIFA to Government: Scrap Communally-Tainted Demography Panel; India's Population Debate Must Be Rooted in Rights, Not Rhetoric

New Delhi- The All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA-NAPM) has expressed profound concern over the constitution of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Change by the Union Home Ministry, calling for a critical review of its Terms of Reference from the lens of constitutional justice and fairness .

The alliance, representing feminists, civil liberties and people's movements, activists, academics and concerned citizens, released a statement on Tuesday demanding that the government's approach to demographic study be rooted in rigorous evidence and respect for human rights, rather than prejudice towards socio-economically marginalized communities .

The High-Level Committee on Demographic Change was formally constituted on May 26, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of a 'High-Powered Demography Mission' on August 15, 2025 . The committee is chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Navlekar, with members including former bureaucrats Durga Shankar Mishra and Balaji Srivastava, economist Dr. Shamika Ravi, and the Census Commissioner .

ALIFA noted that the Terms of Reference contain references to "illegal immigration" or "illegal migrants" in seven of its eight action points . The sole action point that does not include such references calls for an analysis of structural population changes among "religious and social communities" .

According to the government notification, the committee's mandate includes recommending "a streamlined and permanent operational mechanism for the legal, fair, and time-bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants" and analysing "structural population changes at the level of religious or social communities, particularly where they deviate from broader trends".

Concerns Over Narrowed Mandate

ALIFA emphasized that demography is a broad field studying population processes including birth, death, fertility, mortality, ageing, gender ratios, population distribution, migration, urbanization, and the influence of development models on demographic patterns . The alliance argued that a genuinely independent committee would examine the full range of demographic transformations reshaping India, including declining fertility rates, regional population disparities, internal migration, emigration, changing family structures, ageing populations, gender inequalities, and the intensification of care responsibilities .

Instead, ALIFA stated, the ToR has "presumed and pre-determined the outcomes of the inquiry" and narrowed the subject "almost exclusively to questions of 'illegal immigration', 'religious and social communities', border management, identification systems, detention and deportation" .

The statement expressed particular concern that the committee has been tasked with analysing population changes among religious and social communities while simultaneously operating within a framework that repeatedly links demographic change to "illegal immigration" and "demographic imbalance".

Historical Context and Feminist Perspective

The alliance placed the committee's formation in historical context, stating that "historically, the Indian state has used demographic data for its population control goals" . After decades of deploying demographic data to control fertility and sexuality, ALIFA said, "the 'target' has now moved to specific religious communities, in particular minorities, with a communal agenda, under the pretext of achieving an 'infiltrator-free India'" .

"As feminists, we reject attempts to reduce complex social realities to narratives of demographic threat linked to illegal immigration," the statement declared . ALIFA cited historical evidence that "anxieties about population composition often translate into increased surveillance of women's bodies, restrictions on reproductive autonomy, and heightened discrimination against minorities, marginalized, and communities in peripheral locations" .

The alliance pointed to the recent SIR (Summary Revision of Electoral Rolls) exercise, which it claimed resulted in "disproportionately high deletions of women voters and Muslims, relative to their share of the population" .

ALIFA requested the government to undertake a "comprehensive review of the objectives and ToR of the said Committee" and defer the commencement of its work "at least until the ongoing Census is completed" .

"Only a robust, exhaustive, and transparent Census can provide a trustworthy demographic baseline for understanding the myriad complex population changes India is undergoing," the statement said . The alliance warned that "proceeding without such a foundation risks compounding errors, deepening exclusions, and enabling pre-determined conclusions, under the guise of demographic study" .

The government should ensure that any study of demographic change is "independent, methodologically transparent, federally undertaken, and free from assumptions that pre-determine its findings," ALIFA asserted . The alliance cautioned that the committee appears "poised to recommend mechanisms for identifying, detaining and deporting persons presumed to be illegal immigrants" and that such an approach "risks deepening social polarisation rather than advancing evidence-based public policy" .

"We urge the government to step back from this misguided approach," the statement concluded. "Public policy must be guided by constitutional values, rigorous evidence, and respect for human rights. India's demographic future should be approached as a question of justice, equality and human development, not as a narrative of suspicion and fear" .

The All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) is associated with the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).