Why the first digital census of India is getting delayed?

If we look at the historical background of the Indian Census, we will find that the census is first mentioned in the ancient literature Rigveda. Subsequent studies revealed that Kautilya's arthashastra mentioned census. India's Ain-e-Akbari in the medieval period also reveals an analysis of remarkable data about the census. If we talk about British India, the first census was conducted during mayo's reign in 1872. Immediately after that, in 1881, for the first time, a census was conducted simultaneously across the country. Since then, censuses have been conducted on a continuous decade-long basis. Census 2021 this time 16th so far (since 1872) And the 8th Census will take place since the country's independence (since 1947).

Digital census of India

The census is important in many ways for any country. The usefulness of the census plays an important role in determining the scale of development of any country. Census, detects the number of people. At the same time, collected information related to social, cultural and economic life is studied through census. Census is a name given to the process that not only provides information about the social, economic, cultural and population of a country, etc., but also provides an opportunity to study the diversity of the country and other aspects associated with it. Census is the medium by which citizens get informed about their society, demographics, economics, human life, sociology, statistics, etc., about all that directly or indirectly affect their lives.

Moreover, census data is very important in various ways. Census data is the only way to share valuable information in planning and policy formulation for central and state governments. On the other hand, data is widely used by national and international institutions, scholars, traders, industrialists as well as many others. The census is considered to be a comprehensive source of data. It is under the census, in which we get information about the demographic dividend of a country.

The importance of census data is further enhanced in evidence-based decisions of any country. The data collected in any census is extremely helpful in the formulation of governance, schemes and policies as well as their management. The participation of census data helps in the decision-making required for the development of a particular region. Census data is also important because government programs are conducted and their success is ensured keeping in mind the people of the lowest strata of society. Census data is also used in determining grants. The responsibility of giving equal representation to all states of the country in proportion to its population is centered around census data. It is on the basis of census data that constituencies of Lok Sabha, Assembly and local bodies are demarcated.

But at present corona remains a great nuisance to human civilization. In that case, it was not possible to conduct census 2021 on its scheduled time. It is going to be delayed. We are yet to travel nearly half of 2021 due to the corona epidemic, but there is no sign of the census process starting at the moment. The census-2021 process was reported to be executed in two phases. In the first phase, census personnel were asked to go door-to-door between April and September 2020 to collect information about homes and facilities available therein. In the second phase, in the mid-february 9 to 28, the population of the country was said to be counted. But not a single phase could be started yet due to the corona epidemic.

It may be recalled that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had announced in September 2019 that census-2021 would be conducted entirely through mobile phone applications. The 2021 census was said to be conducted in 16 languages. In her Budget speech in 2021, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed that the 2021 census will be the first digital census in India.

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