Announcement of Census Dates

General Studies Paper -2

Context: The Union government announced that the much delayed Census 2021 will be held in two phases beginning October 1, 2026 and March 1, 2027.

About

• The census, typically conducted every ten years to update the National Population Register (NPR), was scheduled for 2021 but had to be postponed due to the Covid pandemic.
• The delimitation of constituencies for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies is to be carried out on the basis of the first Census after 2026.
• This will be India’s first digital Census and will be the first Census since 1931 to capture granular caste data, beyond the broader classifications of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) that have been enumerated in every post-Independence Census.

Census in India

• A census is a survey of the population of an area that includes collecting details of a country’s demographics including age, sex and occupation.
• History: Under W.C. Plowden, the Census Commissioner of India, the first synchronous decennial (every ten years) census was conducted in 1881.
• Independent India’s first census was held in 1951 and since then it has happened in the first year of every decade.
• The Constitution mandates that enumeration is carried out but the Census of India Act of 1948 does not specify its timing or periodicity.
• The population census is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Need for the Census

• Informed Policy Making: The Census provides detailed socio-economic data, helping the government make informed decisions on issues like education, healthcare, housing, employment, and infrastructure.
• Evaluating Development Progress: Comparing census data over decades helps assess the effectiveness of past policies, guiding future strategies.
• Environmental Planning: The Census provides insights into human settlements and demographic pressures, supporting environmental sustainability efforts.
• Electoral Reforms and Delimitation: Census data directly impacts the delimitation of constituencies, ensuring fair representation in Parliament and State Legislatures.

Way Ahead

• The upcoming Census presents a critical opportunity to bridge long-standing data gaps, especially on caste and socio-economic markers.
• Enumerators must be adequately trained to handle complex classifications, particularly for caste data, to ensure reliability and uniformity across states.