Census 2021

News:Union Minister for Home Affairs has said that the 2021 census exercise would be carried out digitally.

Facts:

About Census:

• The census provides information on size, distribution demographic, socio-economic and other characteristics of the country’s population.
• A systematic and modern population census in its present form was conducted non synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of the country.
• However,the first synchronous census in India was held in 1881.Since then,censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten years.
• Since 1949 the census has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
• India’s last census was carried out in 2011 when the country’s population stood at 121 crore.The Indian Census is one of the largest administrative exercises undertaken in the world.

Census 2021:

• The data collected by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India during the 2021 Census will be stored electronically.
• The Census 2021 will be conducted in 18 languages out of the 22 scheduled languages (under 8th schedule) and English.
• The Census data would be available by the year 2024-25 as the entire process would be conducted digitally and data crunching would be quicker.

Additional information:

About Registrar General of India:

• Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India was founded in 1961 by Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It was formed for arranging, conducting and analysing the results of the demographic surveys of India including Census of India and Linguistic Survey of India.