Government forms high-level panel to study 'unnatural demographic change' caused by illegal infiltration

Retired Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar will chair the committee and will include Census Commissioner along with retired IAS officer Durga Shankar Mishra, retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava and economist Dr Shamika Ravi as members. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I) of the Ministry of Home Affairs will serve as Member Secretary.

Nearly 10 months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it from the Red Fort on Independence Day, the Central Government has formally constituted the High-Level Committee on Demographic Change, a body tasked with examining population shifts caused by illegal immigration and other factors that the government considers threats to national security and the social fabric.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the committee's formation on Tuesday, describing infiltration-driven demographic change as "a very significant challenge to the present and future of any nation." Retired Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar will chair the committee and will include Census Commissioner along with retired IAS officer Durga Shankar Mishra, retired IPS officer Balaji Srivastava and economist Dr Shamika Ravi as members. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I) of the Ministry of Home Affairs will serve as Member Secretary.

"To address this very challenge, on 15 August 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji had announced the High-Level Committee on Demographic Change. I am delighted to inform you that the government has now constituted this committee," Shah wrote on X.

The Home Minister said the issue goes beyond population statistics, linking it directly to national sovereignty, internal security, law and order, changes in social structure and the protection of tribal communities. The committee has been mandated to conduct a comprehensive assessment of demographic changes across India driven by illegal immigration, analyse patterns of abnormal population shifts at the level of religious and social communities, and present time-bound solutions.

The announcement follows Modi's pointed remarks on the subject during his Independence Day address last year, when he said the government would not allow infiltrators to seize tribal land. "Infiltrators are a danger to the country's security as they snatch away the livelihood of the youth and capture the land of the tribals. So, the government has decided to start a high-powered demography mission," he had said at the time.

The panel's formation is expected to feed into broader policy action on illegal immigration, a subject the government has kept firmly in focus across its successive terms in office.

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(With IANS inputs)