Team Herald
PANJIM: The Directorate of Census Operations is all set to go paperless with the mobile application to record details for the 16th Census of India. This will be the first digital census of the country. The house and population census of the entire country was delayed thrice due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to Herald, Deputy Director of Census Operations, Goa, Rajeshwar Rao said that the House Listing Operation and Population Enumeration were due in February 2020. However, due to Covid-19 the Census was delayed further.
He said, “Process for Census operations was extended till June 30, 2022. It has now been further extended to December 31 this year.”
Rao said that the Registrar General, Government of India has to make an announcement and later freeze boundaries of the country for a period of one or one-and-half year. “The Registrar General has informed that the mobile application for Census is ready. The enumerator will have to use the application on mobile phone to conduct census,” Rao said.
The deputy director further informed that after the announcement, it will take about one to three months to train the staff and enumeration process will follow.
The 2021 Census was supposed to be India’s first digital Census but was delayed thrice due to the pandemic. In April this year, the Government of India informed Parliament that Census 2021 and related field activities have been postponed ‘until further orders’ due to COVID-19 pandemic. The government is now preparing to conduct the Census in 2023.
