India granted citizenship to 18, 999 people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka in six years from 2014 to 2019.
Among them, the largest number of 15, 036 were from Bangladesh, mainly because of the signing of Indo-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement under which 14, 864 Bangladeshi nationals were granted Indian Citizenship, as per Section 7 of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The second-largest number of 2935 immigrants was from Pakistan, of whom 809 were given citizenship in 2019 only. There were 914 people from Afghanistan, 113 from Sri Lanka and just one from Myanmar granted citizenship during the six years. The one Myanmarese immigrant came in 2015.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that there was no religion-wise data of the persons granted Indian citizenship, which was generally done under Section 5 by registration and under Section 6 by naturalisation.