Self-enumeration option to be provided for Census: Govt tells Parliament

Apart from online self-enumeration, home visits by the enumerators for collecting census data will continue

New Delhi: The option of self-enumeration will be provided in the upcoming Census which will also be India’s first such digital exercise, Union minister Nityanand Rai told the Parliament on Tuesday.

Union minister Nityanand Rai. (ANI)

Rai gave the information in response to Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Congress members Manne Srinivas Reddy and Komtireddy Venkat Reddy’s question about whether the government will allow self-enumeration.

The Census (Amendment) Rules were issued last month. Apart from online self-enumeration, home visits by the enumerators for collecting census data will continue. The housing listing phase of the census and the exercise to update the National Population Register was scheduled to be carried out across the country from April 1 to September 30, 2020. But it was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Census exercise continues to be on hold and the government is yet to announce the new schedule.