In News: More than six lakh Indians renounced citizenship in the past five years, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Key Takeaways
Number of Indians who gave up citizenship stood at
Year
Number of Indians giving up citizenship
2017
1,33,049
2018
1,34,561
2019
1,44,017
2020
85,248
2021 (till Sep 30)
1,11,287
The reason for a large number of Indians surrendering their citizenship was not stated in the reply by Minister of Home Affairs.
In 2018, the MHA had revised the form for declaration of renunciation of citizenship, which, for the first time, included a column on “circumstances/reasons for renouncing Indian citizenship”.
Recently, the MHA had simplified the process and provisions were made for the applicants to upload documents online and an upper limit of 60 days was fixed for the renunciation process to be completed.
According to a Global Wealth Migration Review report, in 2019, India came second only to China when it came to high net worth individuals (HNIs) leaving the country. As many as 7,000 HNIs left India in 2019.
Government added that in the period 2016-20, 10,645 foreigners applied for Indian citizenship, of which more than 7,782 were from Pakistan and 452 were stateless.
During the same period, 4,177 persons were granted Indian citizenship but the country-wise breakup was not provided.
A total number of 1,33,83,718 Indian nationals were living in foreign countries, the reply stated.
The Minister said the persons covered under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 might apply after the rules were notified.
Government also reiterated that it has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at the national level.
