India – Population

1. Reported Stateless Persons

In 2022, India reported a stateless population of 21,591 persons. UNHCR has noted that this figure covers only Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR and is not an estimate of the entire stateless population in India.

In the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s bicameral Parliament) in 2021, the Central Government through the Ministry of Home Affairs stated that it does not maintain data at a central level of foreigners who have entered India without valid travel documents claiming to be refugees, asylum seekers or stateless persons and that they are governed by the provisions of the Foreigners Act. This is in contrast with the position it took the Ministry took in 2014 when it informed the Lok Sabha that there were 10,340 such persons from Afghanistan, 4,621 persons from Myanmar, 102,241 persons from Sri Lanka and 101,148 stateless persons including Tibetans.

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

There are a number of different populations groups in India at risk of statelessness including Tibetan and Sri Lankan refugees, Bengali Muslims in Assam, ethnic minority groups living in border regions (including the Chakma, Hjong and Kutchi communities) and former Kashmiri militants.

3. Stateless Refugee

India’s entire reported stateless population of 21,591 people consists of stateless Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. Human Rights Watch has estimated that Rohingya registered with UNHCR represent half of the total population of 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India. With continually tightening restrictions of refugees within India, many fear that the population will face deportation to Myanmar. Additionally, based on the most recent census conducted by the Central Tibetan Relief Committee 73,404 Tibetan refugees reside in India. While some Tibetan refugees in India have gained citizenship through previous schemes, many remain stateless by choice. More than 92,120 Sri Lanka refugees still reside in India, many of whom lack identity documents and birth registration and may be at risk of statelessness.

4. Undetermined Nationalities

Enhanced focus has been given in recent years to the situation in Assam following the publication of the state’s National Register of Citizens in 2019 which excluded over 1.9 million Assamese, leaving them labelled as foreigners or ‘D voters’ and the validation of their citizenship left at the hands of the foreigners’ tribunals. In a recent court proceeding, the Central Government informed the Supreme Court of India that between 2017 to 2022, 14,346 individuals have been deported from India with 32,381 individuals being declared as foreigners. Another 123,829 cases remain pending before the tribunals. There are some recent unverified reports that as of August 2022, this figure may have drastically increased to 30,000 persons.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR
Country 2019 (year start) 2020 (year end) 2021 (year end) 2022 (year end)
India 17,730 18,174 20,154 21,591

Source: UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022.