CENSUS

CENSUS

Subject : Governance

Context :The provisional data for the latest Census and National Population Register (NPR) will be available before the Lok Sabha election in 2024, according to information provided by the Union Home Ministry to a parliamentary committee.

Concept :

• The previous Census was conducted in 2011 and the NPR, which has a database of 119 crore residents, was last updated in 2015.
• The first phase of Census House-listing and Housing Census that was to be conducted along with the NPR from April 1, 2020, was indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Provisional Census results will be released in the financial year 2023-24 and the primary Census abstracts (PCA) will provide village-level data on important indicators.
• A mobile application has been developed for collecting the Census details and NPR and residents can also self-enumerate.
• The mobile app through which Census will be conducted will be available in 16 languages.

About Census

• The census provides information on size, distribution and socio-economic, demographic and other characteristics of the country’s population.
• During the regime of the Mughal king Akbar, the administrative report ‘Ain-e-Akbari’ included comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics.
• A systematic and modern population census, in its present form was conducted non synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of the country.
• However, the first synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten years.