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India’s census, an annual decadal exercise, is likely to kicking off in September 2024, two government officials have told the news agency Reuters.
The census has been delayed by at least three years. It was to take place in 2021. However, the raging COVID-19 pandemic meant that it could not be held.
The census will take at least 18 months to be carried out and the Union government hopes to release the findings by March 2026, the officials told Reuters.
For a developing country like India, government data is critical since alternative sources of data are either unavailable or unreliable.
The census reveals the demographic, socioeconomic and social makeup of the country.
In their 2020 paper, Delays in the release of India’s census data, researchers Ankush Agrawal and Vikas Kumar noted that “census data are used by governments for urban planning and deciding federal redistribution, while businesses use the data for information on consumer characteristics and for demand forecasting”.
Harsh Anand from the University of Lucknow, in a 2022 blog in the Jus Corpus Law Journal website, called the Indian Census “the most comprehensive single source of statistical data about India’s inhabitants and their many characteristics”.
The data gathered during the census is used by researchers and demographers to assess population growth and trends and develop estimates, Anand added.
He enumerated other uses as well.
For instance, governments use it for administration, planning, and legislation, as well as management and assessment of numerous programmes.
“Delimitation/reservation of Constituencies (Parliamentary/Assembly/Panchayats and other Local Bodies) is also based on population data gathered during the Census. The census is the foundation for evaluating the country’s progress over the last decade, monitoring the government’s ongoing schemes, and, most significantly, planning for the future. The census figures are also vital for businesses and sectors to enhance and plan their operations in order to expand into previously untapped markets. The Finance Commission awards money to governments based on population figures from the census,” wrote Anand.
In their paper, Agarwal and Kumar highlighted the delays that the Indian census has seen over the decades and blamed “technocratisation of policy-making, growing political interference and, in case of data on identity, growing communalisation of politics”.
“Unless India’s official statistical system is insulated from government and political interference it might slip toward the wrong end of the continuum,” they concluded.
However, the new census is expected to have some features that will distinguish it from the older ones.
For one, it will be digital, with self-enumeration options.
“It will also be the first time that information on families headed by a member of the Transgender Community and family members will be gathered. Previously, there was a separate column for men and women only,” wrote Anand.
Recent media reports have also speculated about the inclusion of more caste categories in the census as the discourse and demand about a Caste Census have gathered momentum.
Besides ‘Scheduled Caste’ and ‘Scheduled Tribe’, the census could have a column regarding ‘Other Backward Class’ as well, according to these reports.