Mobile application will contain questionnaires on Houselisting, Housing and NPR
The Registrar General of India (RGI) is preparing to conduct field trials of the first phase of Census and the National Population Register (NPR) through a mobile application in all the States and Union Territories, a senior government official told The Hindu.
The first phase of the decennial Census exercise-the Houselisting and Housing Census, along with updating the NPR, were scheduled to be held from April 1 last but were postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unlikely that the exercise will be conducted this year as vaccination is still at an early stage.
However, the officials are planning to conduct pre-test or field trials through the mobile application in one block each of every district that is expected to cover 50-60 households.
The mobile application would contain questionnaires on Houselisting, Housing and the NPR, the official said.
“The dates for conducting the Census exercise has not been finalised yet but the enumerators will have to be trained in using the app. Many enumerators are young school teachers who are expected to use the app instead of paper schedule [form], there will be incentives for the electronic form,” said the official.
The second phase of Census- population enumeration would be conducted after the first phase.
The RGI, on January 9, 2020, notified the 31 columns for which the enumerators will seek response for the House listing and Housing Census. The questions include- whether the respondent has access to LPG/PNG connection, if the person owns a radio, transistor, television, laptop, computer, telephone, mobile phone or a smartphone and has an access to Internet.
The questions for the NPR has not been made public yet but the pre-test conducted in 2019 included additional questions such as date and place of birth of father and mother, last place of residence and mother tongue, Aadhaar (optional), voter ID card, mobile phone and driving licence numbers. The Opposition-ruled States have expressed apprehensions over the additional questions.
Electronic database
In 2010 and 2015, the NPR collected details on 14 parameters only and it already has an electronic database of more than 119 crore residents.
“The mobile application will have the NPR schedule also. Before it is rolled out, the app has to be tested for any glitches and field trials are to be conducted,” said the official.
On February 9, Vivek Joshi, RGI and Census Commissioner of India, virtually chaired a meeting of Directors of Census Operations of all States to review the preparations for the coming Census where the field trails by mobile applications was discussed.
Director of Census Operations of one of the States who attended the meeting told The Hindu, “The mobile application has been improvised after the 2019 trials and the field trials will be held afresh, we are awaiting directions from the RGI.”
On February 10, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the Rajya Sabha that “Mobile app for collection of data and a Census portal for management and monitoring of various Census related activities have been developed.”
He said, “Instruction manuals for enumerators and other Census functionaries have been prepared. A pre-test of Census was undertaken from 12th August, 2019 to 30th September, 2019 in selected areas of all the States and Unions Territories to test the Census questionnaire and methodology”.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on February 1 that ₹ 3,768 crore had been allocated for Census in the financial year 2021-22.
The NPR exercise has been opposed by many States and citizens groups because the Citizenship Rules 2003 link it to the creation of a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) or National Register of Citizens (NRC). Coupled with the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019, which excludes Muslims, fears of an NPR-NRC brought thousands of people on the streets in protest. The government has denied that the NRC and the NPR are linked.
As many as 69 people were killed in various incidents in the days following the passage of the CAA by Parliament on December 11, 2019. The CAA allows citizenship on basis of religion to undocumented non-Muslim communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Source: Read Full Article