For the first time in the history of Bangladesh a National Population Register (NPR) is being prepared which will compile a complete database of all the people in the country.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) will perform the task of compiling the database.
A workshop on NPR was organized by the BBS under the Department of Statistics and Information Management on Sunday at the NEC Conference Room of the Ministry of Planning.
Planning Minister M A Mannan was the chief guest on the occasion. BBS Director (Census Wing) Dr Mohammad Shahadat Hossain presented the keynote paper.
The minister said, “Such a record is very important and the big challenge is to present it neatly. Privacy must be a priority.”
He added that it has to be made sure that there is no overlapping in the register sector. That would result in a waste of time and money and it cannot be acceptable.
Dr Shamsul Alam said that it would be a milestone. He said, “All the information of the citizens will be in the list. This is a matter of national importance. However, care must be taken not to allow duplication, overlapping or similar issues.”
He added that decisions need to be taken calmly to avoid such problems that could waste time, increase cost and cause complexity. If the information is not correct, the plan will not be correct.
The NPR is a comprehensive and self-contained database with demographic and biometric data of all the resident populations of the country.
According to the press release issued by the BBS, one of the reasons for preparing the National Population Register (NPR) is to identify its own citizens through the creation of a comprehensive database with the necessary demographic data of the residents.
It was informed in the workshop that even if a person dies; his/her information in the NPR will not be deleted and would remain throughout generations.
Planning Secretary Mohammad Zainul Bari, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) Secretary Pradeep Ranjan Chakraborty and BBS Director General Tajul Islam addressed the workshop under the chairmanship of Secretary, Statistics and Information Management Muhammad, Yamin Chowdhury.