CENSUS
2021 – POLITY
News: People count: On the Census and the
shadow of politics
What's
in the news?
●
Census collects population data that is
crucial to planning and development, and the exercise is rarely devoid of
political intent or consequence.
●
India has conducted the Census every 10
years since 1881, but in 2020, the decennial exercise for the 2021 Census had
to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reasons
for delayed census:
●
The
2021 Census had to be postponed because of the Covid pandemic, the first time
in the 150-year history of India’s census operations that the exercise was not
completed on time.
●
Curiously, the Census has been pending
even after the end of the pandemic and the restoration of normalcy. As of now,
there is no clarity on the timeline.
●
The enumeration work — the actual counting
of people — has traditionally been done in February of the Census year, and if
the same practice is to be followed, the earliest it can now be done is in
February next year.
Provisional
datas:
●
Total number of districts - 640 in 2011 to 736 presently.
●
Total number of sub-districts - 5,925 in 2011 to 6,754 presently.
●
Statutory
towns - 4,041 in 2011 to 4,657 at present.
●
Census
towns - 3,892 in 2011 to 5,050 at present
●
Villages
- decreased from 6,40,934 in 2011 to 6,39,083 in 2021.
Census:
●
Census includes the total process of
collecting, compiling, analyzing, evaluating, publishing and disseminating
statistical data regarding the population and its characteristics.
●
Population
characteristics include demographic, social and economic
data and are provided as of a particular date (reference period).
●
Census provides detailed information on economic activity, literacy and education,
housing and household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality,
scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, language, religion, migration,
disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data.
History
of census:
●
A systematic and modern population census,
in its present form was conducted non-synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in
different parts of the country.
●
The first population census of India under
British Viceroy Lord Mayo in 1872.
●
The first decennial census in India was
held in 1881 by W.C. Plowden, Census
Commissioner of India.
○
In this census, the main emphasis was not
only laid on complete coverage but also on the classification of demographic,
economic and social characteristic took in the entire continent of British
India (except Kashmir).
●
Since then, censuses have been undertaken
uninterruptedly once every ten years.
Authority
to conduct census:
●
Post 1949, it has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner
of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
●
All the censuses since 1951 were conducted
under the 1948 Census of India Act.
●
The information collected during the
process is confidential. In fact,
this information is not even accessible to the courts of law.
What's
new in 2021 census?
●
For the first time, the data will be
collected digitally via mobile
applications.
●
It will not collect caste data.
●
For the first time, the information of
households headed by a person from the transgender
community and members living in the family will be collected.