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Census: What Are the Concerns Around India's First Digital Census?

Census: Concerns are growing over India's digital census, with only half of the 1.4 billion population having smartphone access, risking exclusion of millions. Additionally, past data breaches raise serious privacy alarms.

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Census in India

Census in India | Indian citizens will have the choice of filling in the census form through a special mobile app developed in 16 different Indian languages. | Abhijit00 | Credits https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

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Census data needs to be verifiable and accurate so it can be used effectively in formulating welfare policies.

India has finally got around to organising its 2021 census –  three years after it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first  Census of India was conducted in 1881 and has been conducted every decade since then. The last census was held in 2011.
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It is one of the largest data collection exercises in the world. This will be the first digital census of India. Citizens will have the choice of self-enumerating by filling the census form digitally.

They are expected to do it through a special mobile app developed by the Office of the Registrar General of India in 16 different Indian languages. This  will eliminate the need for enumerators, saving the government time and money.

However, questions are being raised about switching to the digital option, especially as only half of the 1.4 billion Indian population has access to smartphones.

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According to Usha Ramanathan, an  independent law researcher: “Even with income tax filing, which is supposed to be easy, most people still have to use a chartered accountant. 

"Then take the COVID-19 vaccine registration platform Cowin, for instance. Not only have other tech solutions been necessary to support the flawed government portal but the fact that you can request a change in name, year of birth and gender, shows the level of error they’re looking at.” 

Moreover, reports suggest women are half as likely to have internet access than men, raising questions about the participation of women in the exercise. 

There’s also apprehension about potential privacy breaches. There have been several data breaches in the past where the private data of millions of Indians has been put up for sale on the dark web.

There have been suggestions that before rolling out the census to the public, the government should carry out a pilot survey, where the app will be tested and any problems rectified in order to achieve the desired precision and accuracy.

Inexplicable Delay

Significantly, it is the delay in the census exercise that has led to questions about the government’s intentions. There has been an inexplicable delay in initiating the census exercise even after the pandemic was over.

The disbursal of government welfare schemes rely on the census data for effectiveness. As the latest demographics are not available, this can put the vulnerable communities at risk of being left out.  This itself should have prompted the government to initiate the census exercise post haste.

Before the census exercise is carried out, the delimitation of the boundaries of the administrative units have to be frozen. However, this was delayed due to “technical reasons”

Some scholars attributed this delay to the National Population Register (NPR) exercise which was meant to be the first step towards preparing the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC).

There is a concern the NPR could lead to exclusion of specific marginalised communities. Experts believe that the NPR has a political agenda and can be used as a tool to disempower and disfranchise certain communities such as Muslims in India

Another cause of delay has been the demand for a caste census from various groups, which would provide data on the social and economic status of different communities.

Experts claim that the government is not willing to conduct a caste census. This is evident from the Union government’s reply to Maharashtra state government’s petition on collecting data on the Backward Class of Citizens (BCC). 

The Union government

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