The Indian cabinet has approved funds for a census and a population survey to be held next year despite weeks of protests over a citizenship law that critics say is anti-Muslim. Authorities say the updated National Population Register (NPR) will be a comprehensive list of all residents. However, critics say it will be a list from which "doubtful citizens" will be asked to prove they are Indian. More than 20 people have died in protests over the citizenship law. What is the NPR? Authorities say the aim of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every "usual resident" of the country. A "usual resident" is a person who has lived in an area for at least six months or a person who plans to live in an area for the next six months or more. This means foreigners living in India would be included in the NPR. After Tuesday's cabinet meeting, minister Prakash Javadekar said the government had allocated 39.4bn rupees ($553m; £427m) for the NPR and that it would be updated between April and September 2020. Meanwhile, another 87.54bn rupees will be spent on the census, which will collect data on population, economic activity, migration and demography, among other things. Mr Javadekar said the first NPR was created in 2010 and was updated in 2015. He said better data would help the government formulate improved policies. Critics say the NPR is the first step towards the creation of a controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) that is being championed by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, but the government has denied this. The NRC has already been implemented in the north-eastern state of Assam. People in the state had to prove that they moved there before 24 March 1971, a day before neighbouring Bangladesh became an independent country. The exercise left nearly two million people people off the register. The authorities have not yet clarified what documents would be needed for the NRC in the rest of India.