India’s next Census will be an electronic or e-Census, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said. Around 50 per cent of the country’s population will be able to feed their data on their mobile phones
India’s Census has been deferred because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next Census will be an e-Census, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah. AFP
India’s next census will be an electronic census or e-census, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday during his two-day visit to Assam.
“The next census, which has been delayed because of COVID, will be an e-Census… a hundred per cent perfect Census, on the basis of which the country’s roadmap for the next 25 years will be built,” Shah said while speaking at the inauguration of Directorate of Census Operations (Assam) building in the Amingaon area in Guwahati. While the e-Census will have challenges, it will also have advantages, he added.
How will the e-Census work?
According to Shah, the Census will be “more scientific, accurate and multi-dimensional, with the help of modern techniques”.
With the introduction of the e-Census, 50 per cent of the country’s population will be able to feed their data on a mobile application downloaded on their phones. The government is preparing new software for the e-Census.
“A person’s name will be added to the census at birth. When they turn 18, the name will be included in the electoral roll and after death, the name will be deleted,” said Shah.
“We will link birth and death registers to the Census… It means the Census will be updated automatically after every birth and death in the country,” he added.
The Census data can reflect demographic changes, economic mapping, areas left behind in the development parameters, and cultural, linguistic, and societal changes, according to the home minister.
Shah said that different agencies would be involved in the e-Census and that processes like changing addresses would be smoother, reports The Indian Express.
Apart from online self-enumeration, home visits by the enumerators for collecting Census data will continue. Those visiting homes will likely be armed with tablets or smartphones that will let them enter information into a portal directly, according to media reports.
An online Census was first mentioned by Shah in September 2020. In February, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated a budget of Rs 3,786 crore for it.
What changes have been made to Census rules?
Last month, the government has notified certain amendments to Census rules to allow online self-enumeration in the next Census and National Population Register (NPR), a list of the “usual residents of the country”. According to the home ministry, “usual residents” are those who have been residing in a local area for at least the last six months, or intend to stay in a particular location for the next six months.
In a gazette notification, the Centre amended Census Rules, 1990, to include “electronic form” and “self-enumeration” in the schedule of questions to be asked during Census enumeration. The amendment has been inserted in clause C of Rule-2, which deals with definitions.
Clause C now reads, “Census Schedule means the schedule containing questions referred to in sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Act, in paper form or in an electronic form and can be canvassed in the said modes including through self-enumeration.”
How was the Census conducted so far?
“We have taken the historic decision to transition from a paper census to an e-census — while it may be complicated, if done well, it may just be easier,” Shah said on Monday.
The paper Census involved government offcials going door to door, visiting every house and filling up forms, which were then transported to data processing centres for digitisation and analysis.
The Census provides detailed and authentic information on demography, economic activity, literacy and education, housing and household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, language, religion, migration, disability, and many other socio-cultural and demographic data.
When did India start collecting Census?
Census is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act 1948, and in India, this data is collected every 10 years.
The first complete census of India was conducted in 1830 by Henry Walter in Dacca (now Dhaka). In this Census, the statistics of the population with sex, broad age group, and the houses with their amenities were collected, according to a report in India Today.
The first modern census was conducted between 1865 and 1872 across the country. The efforts culminated in 1872 and hence the year is dubbed the year of the first population Census.
The last Census was conducted in 2011 and was conducted in two phases: the housing census and the population census. This was 15th National Census of the country since 1872 and the seventh after Independence.
When will the next Census be conducted?
The Census was scheduled to begin in March 2020 with the house-listing phase and NPR enumeration, followed by the population Census, but was deferred indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first time it has been delayed in India’s history.
While there is no clarity on when the Census will begin, the Union government has directed the states not to alter the boundaries of the districts and other civil and police units until June 2022, a mandatory requirement three months before the enumeration exercise.
With inputs from agencies
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