Census unlikely anytime soon as fear of 3rd wave of Covid-19 looms large: MHA officials

The decennial census supposed to be held in 202021 but postponed due to the Covid19 pandemic will not be held anytime soon The Centre has directed the states not to alter the boundaries of the districts and other civil and police units till June 2022 a mandatory requirement three months prior to the countrys biggest enumeration exerciseWith the third wave of the Covid19 pandemic looming large Union Home Ministry officials said so far no decision has been taken on when to conduct the census and then update the National Population Register NPR The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India has conveyed to the states that the central government has put a ban on the alteration of boundaries of districts subdivisions taluks police stations etc till June 2022 an official from the Home Ministry saidBan on alteration of boundaries of administrative and police units at least three months prior is mandatory for conducting the census operations Since the boundaries of the administrative and police units have been freezed till June 2022 there is no question of launching the census operations before October the official said Indias Covid tally rose to 34922882 with 33750 fresh cases while the active cases increased to 145582 according to the data updated at 8 am on MondayThe death toll climbed to 481893 with 123 more fatalities the data showed The active cases have increased to 145582 while the national Covid19 recovery rate was recorded at 9820 per cent the health ministry said The central government had first ordered freezing of the boundaries of the administrative units from January 1 2020 to March 31 2021Subsequently after the outbreak of the pandemic it was extended till December 31 2020 The ban on alteration of the administrative boundaries was again extended till December 31 2021 and now till June 30 2022 The total number of districts in the country in 2011 when the last census was conducted was around 640 India now has about 100 more districts The number of statutory towns stands at 4657 up from 4041 in 2011 and the number of census towns is 5050 up from 3892 in 2011However the number of villages has gone down from 640934 in 2011 to 639083 now The housing listing phase of the Census and the exercise to update the NPR were scheduled to be carried out across the country from April 1 to September 30 2020 but postponed due to the Covid19 outbreak According to the earlier schedule the census would have its reference date as March 1 2021 and the snowbound Jammu and Kashmir Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand it would have been October 1 2020In March 2020 when the Covid lockdown was announced the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India was all set for the first phase of the census and updation of the NPR that was scheduled to begin from April 1 2020 Even though some state governments opposed the NPR update all offered full support to the census exercise While the census exercise was estimated to cost Rs 8700 crore the Union Cabinet had approved Rs 394135 crore for the NPR exerciseThe census is the largest single source of a variety of statistical information on different characteristics of the people of India With a history of more than 130 years this reliable time tested exercise has been bringing out a veritable wealth of statistics every 10 years The rich diversity of the people of India is truly brought out by the decennial census which has become one of the tools to understand and study India The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particularsThe NPR is a register of usual residents of the country It is being prepared at the local village and subtown subdistrict or subdivision district state and national levels under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards Rules 2003 The data for NPR was last collected in 2010 along with the house listing phase of the Census 2011The data was updated during 2015 by conducting door to door surveys While updating the register in 2015 the government had asked for details like Aadhaar and their mobile number This time the information related to their driving licence and voter ID card may also be gathered the officials said Though information regarding the place of birth of parents will be sought it is up to the residents whether to respond to the question as it is voluntaryFor the purposes of the NPR a usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months The law compulsorily seeks to register every citizen of India and issue a national identity cardThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text 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