Beijing, China (CNN) More than a million Chinese Communist officials are being dispatched to live with local families in the western region of Xinjiang, a move seen as a sign of the government's increasingly tightened grip over the area's predominantly Uyghur Muslim population.

The so-called "home stays," announced by the government, target farmer households in southern Xinjiang, where the authorities have been waging an unrelenting campaign against what they call the forces of "terrorism, separatism and religious extremism."

Government statements and state media reports show that families are required to provide detailed information during the visits on their personal lives and political views. They are also subject to "political education" from the live-in officials-- whose stays are mandated to be at least one week per month in some locations.

International advocacy group Human Rights Watch highlighted and condemned the government's "home stay" program in a report released Sunday, calling it a serious violation of privacy and cultural rights of the 11 million ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

"What can be more intrusive than forcing your way into somebody's home, making them host you while conducting surveillance on them and saying you're bringing benefits to them?" Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report, told CNN on Monday.