Delay
Recently, budget allocated ₹1,309.46 crore for the Census, a significant reduction from 2021-22 when ₹3,768 crore was allocated
Thereby indicating that it may not be carried out even after the considerable delay.
Need
In the absence of a Census after 2011, a majority of our country’s population is unable to access several schemes, benefits and services.
Implementation of the women’s Reservation Act passed in the Parliament last year, reserving 33% of seats in Parliament and Assemblies for women, awaits the conduct of the Census
It is imperative that sufficient provisions are made in the 2025-26 Census Budget so that the 2021 Census that has been postponed could be held at the earliest, in 2026
Delimitation
The Constitution (Eighty fourth Amendment) Act of 2001 was specifically made so as not to have delimitation of the constituencies till the first Census conducted after 2026.
Centre thinking in terms of having the Census in 2027 and utilising the population figures obtained from it for delimitation purposes
Then the Census reference date should be announced soon, with the new deadline for the freezing of the boundaries of the administrative units by the State govt. and UT administration
National Population Register
NPR with details of persons usually residing, first prepared in 2010 during the Houselisting and Housing Census phase of Census 2011
It was updated in 2015 incorporating changes due to birth, death and migration.
The NPR would be updated again during the House listing and Housing Census Operations (Phase 1) of the forthcoming Census
Inclusion of the new questions in new NPR has been opposed by some States as it contains questions such as “mother tongue, place of birth of father and mother and last place of residence”
NPR is the first step toward compilation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), according to the Citizenship Rules 2003.
The Centre has however clarified that NPR data will not be used in the preparation of the NRC
Caste census
There is growing demand for a caste-based census to be conducted by the Centre to precisely understand the economic well-being of the marginalised communities.
The Union Government had stated that a caste census (except that for the SC and the ST done traditionally) was unfeasible, and “administratively difficult and cumbersome”.
COMMENTS