NEW DELHI: India is gearing up for its first digital census and the government has already made several technological advancements on the platform on which the exact headcount, class, gender, age, employment and other socio-economic data of over 130 crore Indian citizens would be captured and categorised.
Nityanad Rai, Minister of State for Home Affairs, informed the Parliament on Tuesday that the next census will be an app-based exercise, adding, "the forthcoming Census will be the first digital Census and there is a provision for self-enumeration."
Rai further said that "Mobile apps for the collection of data and a census portal for the management and monitoring of various census-related activities have been developed."
The Minister was responding to a question in Lok Sabha on the status of the decennial census, which was slated to be conducted in 2021. Several Parliamentarians sought to know from the Ministry of Home Affairs as to when the census would be completed.
"The intent of the Government for conducting Census 2021 was notified in the Gazette of India on March 28, 2019. Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Census 2021 and the related field activities have been postponed until further orders," Rai said, adding that the next census would be done on a digital platform.
The last decennial or decadal population census exercise of India, conducted by the Directors of Census Operations who coordinate the work of census taking in the respective States and Union Territories, was undertaken during Feb 9–28, 2011, with a revisional round during March 1-5, 2011. The next Census was due in 2021 but the same has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Rai said, "the population projection for India and States and Union Territories for 2011-2036, based on Census 2011 data, were available in the Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections published by the National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare."
Population Census provides basic statistics on the state of human resources, demography, culture and economic structure at the local, regional and national levels. The information and data are vital to guide and shape the future development projects of the country.