With the Central Government announcing the date for India’s 16th population census, the long-pending nationwide exercise to collect data on resource distribution and availability—stalled for the past four years—is now set to be completed next year. As in the previous round, the first phase will involve the House Listing Operation (HLO), which maps houses and other assets. In the second phase, the headcount will collect data on the population along with socio-economic and cultural details. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the census will begin on March 1 next year across India, except in the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir, and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where October 1 this year has been set as the reference date. This will also be the first census in independent India to collect caste-based data—a practice last undertaken in 1931. Though the extensive decennial exercise was scheduled for 2021, it was postponed despite preparations being completed, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The population census is an enormous and labour-intensive task that demands a vast human workforce and a long duration. Around 30 lakh enumerators will be involved, along with 1,20,000 staff members at district and sub-district levels for supervision and support, and 46,000 trainers. This time, India will also experiment with a digital census for the first time. Facilities will be provided for individuals to self-enumerate using a mobile app, which will also allow verification. This app, being developed in English, Hindi, and 14 regional languages, will enable individuals to log in and enter their details. Once completed, they will receive a unique ID, which can be presented to the census official during their visit. The officials will be equipped with necessary tools, including smartphones with the app pre-installed. The government believes digitisation will help reduce errors, speed up the process, and improve data quality. As a result, the administration believes it can publish gender-disaggregated population data at the national, state, district, and taluk levels within nine months. The benefits of digitisation become clearer when we recall that the last census in 2011 took nearly two years to complete.
Census data is central to numerous government functions. These figures serve as the basis for determining electoral constituencies and identifying reserved constituencies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. They are also used to allocate central government assistance—such as various subsidies and ration distribution—at the state and district levels. Ministries like Education and Rural Development rely on census data to plan services such as schools, primary health centres, and infrastructure development schemes. The judiciary, planning bodies, and researchers use this data to understand emerging trends in areas like migration, employment, productivity, and urbanisation. Moreover, the census provides a comprehensive picture of changes in people’s identity, occupations, living standards, and family structures. This, in turn, enables governments to adopt effective methods for designing and delivering welfare schemes.
In a country like India, where people of diverse socio-economic backgrounds live, accurate information about their status is essential to ensure that resources are distributed to everyone according to their needs. However, if one were to ask whether those in power at the Centre and in the states truly make decisions based on such data, the answer would not be very reassuring. Budgetary allocations and schemes assigned to different states often face criticism for unequal distribution. When Centre–State relations shrink into the narrow considerations of party politics, and when those in power allow their regional, religious, caste, or ethnic biases to influence governance, it is the marginalised at the bottom of society who end up paying the price.
Collecting and presenting data on the country’s various population groups is certainly a wholesome idea—if it helps to identify and address the social, economic, and cultural disparities among people. India has witnessed how the findings of the Mandal Commission and the Sachar Committee paved the way for the upliftment of the underprivileged. Such a democratic and welfare-oriented environment can exist only under a government that truly believes in democracy and public welfare. However, in the hands of those who operate with an agenda to marginalise and exclude the backward and the oppressed, even such data is being turned into a weapon to further discrimination. Therefore, merely counting the population is not enough. What truly matters is how the government uses that information to benefit the nation and its people.