Knocking doors, collecting data through mobile app; All you need to know about digital Census 2021
New Delhi, January 10: As India gears up for Census 2021, for the first time in the 140 year history of the census in the country, data will be collected through mobile app and enumerators would be encouraged to use their own mobile phone. Coming April, the census officers visiting households will ask citizens for information regarding toilets in their homes, TV, internet, vehicles they own, source of drinking water, mobile number (of the head of the family) etc. Along with it, the central government will also carry out the National Population Register (NPR) along with house listing phase of the census.
The census exercise will begin on April 1 (2020) this year and end on 30th September (2020). The Enumerators will also seek other details from the households during the houselisting phase of this (census) process (beginning April 1). The Registrar General of India said at the conference which was held to finalise the strategy and questionnaire for the Census 2021 that the enumerators would use their own mobile phones to collect the data. The enumerators would be paid appropriate remuneration. There is also an option to collect and record the data through paper schedules which will eventually be submitted electronically by them.
The notification, however, made it clear that the mobile number will be sought only for census-related communications and not for any other purpose. The other information that will be sought from every household is: whether the family owns a telephone, mobile phone, smartphone, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, moped, car or jeep or van, radio or transistor, television, laptop or computer or has access to the internet.
Information will be sought on building number (municipal or local authority or census number), census house number, predominant material of the floor, wall and roof of the census house, use of census house, condition of the census house, household number, total number of persons normally residing in the household, name of the head of the household and the person's sex. The numerators will ask whether the head of the household belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or Other category, ownership status of the census house, number of dwelling rooms exclusively in possession of the household, number of married couple(s) living in the household, main source of drinking water, availability of drinking water source and main cereal consumed in the household.
Questions related to the main source of lighting, whether the family has access to a toilet, the type of toilet, wastewater outlet, availability of bathing facility, availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection and main fuel used for cooking will also be asked by the enumerators, the notification said.
The 2021 census will be conducted through a mobile phone application, moving away from the traditional pen and paper. The census will have its reference date as March 1, 2021, but for snow-bound Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand it will be October 1, 2020.