Government officials said that the decadal Census, which was postponed for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, is unlikely to be held before the next Lok Sabha elections that are due in April-May 2024.
Decadal Census Postponed Till Next Lok Sabha Elections?
The team has created a 31 questions list to be asked in the Census, whenever it is held.
These questions include details about access to smartphones, Internet, laptops, computers, cars, two-wheelers, main cereal consumed.
Earlier, this house listing phase of the Census and the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR) were scheduled to be carried out across the country from April 1 to September 30, 2020.
But due to the COVID-19 outbreak it was postponed.
It appears that this Census operation will continue to be on hold as the government has not yet announced a new schedule.
Earlier, in January, officials said that the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India conveyed that the date of freezing of administrative boundaries — creation of new districts or sub-districts — has been extended to June 30.
Basically, the Census can be conducted only three months after (post September 30) freezing of boundary limits of administrative units such as districts, sub-districts, tehsils, taluks and police stations, as per the norms.
Besides this, they will also need two to three months to train the entire 30 lakh government employees/teachers across India who will be engaged as enumerators for the Census.
In the meantime, the Election Commission is also planning to kick start the process for the next general elections such as revision of voter lists, etc.
So, there is little room to hold the Census exercise from October as the same set of people are supposed to be engaged both by the Election Commission and the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
It seems that the priority will be changed, in most likelihood and the Census operation will be carried out only after the Lok Sabha elections, the officials said.
First Digital Census In India
Notably, this exercise holds a great significance whenever it happens as it will be the first digital Census, giving citizens an opportunity to self-enumerate.
It is noteworthy here that the NPR has been made compulsory for citizens who want to exercise the right to fill the Census form on their own rather than through government enumerators.
Considering the need of the hour, the Census authority has designed a yet-to-be-launched self-enumeration portal.
For this self-enumeration process, Aadhaar or mobile number will be mandatorily collected.
During this process, 31 questions to be asked to the citizens have been set according to the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
These questions will try to get details about the family if they are having a telephone line, Internet connection, mobile or smartphone, bicycle, scooter or motorcycle or moped, whether it owns a car, jeep or a van.
They will also be asked about what cereal they consume in the household, main source of drinking water and lighting, access to toilet and its type, wastewater outlet, availability of bathing facility, availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection, main fuel used for cooking, availability of radio, transistor, television, among others.
Besides this they will also be asked about the predominant material of floor, wall and roof of the Census house, its condition, total number of persons normally residing in the household, whether its head is a woman, if the head belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, number of dwelling rooms exclusively in possession of the household and the number of married couple(s) living in the household, among others.
