A Digital Census in The True Sense Coming Soon, Says Govt Document; Here's What You Can Count on

There is finally hope for the Census to start soon, after being on hold for the last two years, with the Centre set to test mobile applications for conducting the “forthcoming digital census of India”, as per a central government document reviewed by News18.

The 2021 Census exercise has been on hold for the last two years due to the Covid pandemic. The first phase of the Census was to be completed by September 2020 and the second phase was to be concluded by March last year.

However, even the first phase which is the Houselisting and Housing Census was suspended in 2020. It appears that the once-a-decade Census exercise is undergoing a major change

“Census of India is one of the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world. The forthcoming Census marks a milestone in the history of Census taking in the country with many new initiatives,” says a new government document reviewed by News18.

It says these changes would include data collection in sixteen scheduled languages using a mobile app, use of the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal for real-time management of Census activities, and direct credit of honorarium and training allowance to the bank accounts of field functionaries.

“Hence, it will be a digital census in true sense,” the document says, outlining an exercise to test the mobile app(s) for “conducting forthcoming digital Census of India”.

These mobile apps will be tested at the District Census Offices and the Office of the Registrar General of India by senior officials and the government is in fact procuring over 80 iPhones for the purpose.

This March, the Centre amended the Census Rules to stipulate that the citizens of the country, if they wish, can self-enumerate online in the upcoming Census.

The Census schedule, which contains questions to be asked during the decennial exercise, could now be both on paper and in electronic forms.

The Census operation has continued to be on hold and the government is yet to announce the new schedule.

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