Panel reaches Jammu to study demographic changes near border

Four members of the High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes (HLCDC) arrived in Jammu on Monday (August 10, 2026) as part of their first-ever field visit to study demography changes in border areas, as mandated by the Union Home Ministry.

The committee is led by former Supreme Court judge Justice Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar (retd.), who is not part of the visit.

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The committee is likely to meet civil society members on Tuesday and visit settlements along the Pakistan border in Kathua and Samba districts over the next two days. Organisations that have received invitation from the panel include Brahmin Sabha; Team Jammu, which works on anti-narcotics programmes; Pannun Kashmir, an organisation of displaced Kashmiri Pandits; Jammu State Morcha; Transporters Association; and Private Schools Association. The panel is meeting groups shortlisted by the district administration, an official said.

The panel members are likely to visit a detention centre in Hiranagar where around 450 Rohingyas are lodged. As per the Ministry’s estimate in 2017, around 13,000 Rohingyas have settled in Jammu.

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Rohingyas are an ethnic group from Myanmar, mostly Muslims, who are based in the Rakhine province of West Myanmar. The country has not granted them full citizenship and they are classified as “resident foreigners” or as “associate citizens”. They left Myanmar in large numbers in two distinct waves – first in 2012 and again in 2017.

Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, former IAS officer Durga Shanker Mishra who served as the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary, former IPS officer Balaji Srivastava who retired as Director General Bureau of Police Research and Development, and Shamika Ravi, who is part of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, are members of the vising committee. The Joint Secretary (Foreigners-I), Home Ministry, is the Member Secretary of the panel.

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Last year, on Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the High-Powered Demography Mission. On May 26, the Home Ministry constituted the committee to study demographic changes arising from illegal immigration and other reasons, and to suggest measures to deal with these changes.

The Minsitry’s notification said that the panel, which has to submit its report in the next one year, will also recommend “a well-organised and permanent operational system for the legal, fair and time bound identification, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants already residing in the country.”