Nearly nine lakh persons relinquished their Indian citizenship in the last five years, the Ministry of External Affairs told Parliament on Thursday.
The ministry said that 85,256 persons gave up their citizenship in 2020, 1.6 lakh in 2021, 2.2 lakh in 2022, 2.1 lakh in 2023 and 2 lakh in 2024.
From 2011 to 2019, the number was between 1.2 lakh per year and 1.4 lakh per year.
The details were provided in response to a question by an Opposition MP, who also asked whether the government has data on the income profile or occupations of those who give up Indian citizenship.
Kirti Vardhan Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, said that the government does not have such information.
In March, the Union government told Parliament that the reasons for renunciation of citizenship were “personal and known only to the individual”.
The government added that it recognised the “potential of the global workplace in an era of knowledge economy”, which had brought about a “transformational change in its engagement with Indian diaspora”.
“A successful, prosperous, and influential diaspora is an asset for India,” the government had said. “India stands to gain a lot from tapping its diaspora networks and productive utilisation of the soft power that comes from having such a flourishing diaspora.”
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