IASbaba's Flagship Course: Integrated Learning Programme (ILP) - 2024 Read Details
TOPIC: General Studies 2:
- Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e governance- applications
In News: Amid the backdrop of protests and rallies on the new citizenship law, the National Sample Survey Office field officials have been attacked in some areas of Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal for some of the ongoing NSS surveys.
Gathering mistrust over CAA and NRC, the house-listing operation and the updation of the National Population Register, set to begin in April for Census 2021, could run into rough weather. The survey system is already in "deep trouble" and given the increasing instances of such attacks, conducting household surveys with the Census as the frame would be "very tough" going ahead.
Census of India faces its stiffest challenge…
Conducted since 1872, few measures introduced by the British Raj have left as deep a mark as the Census of India. Yet, nearly 150 years after it was introduced, the Census faces its stiffest challenge, with fears being expressed that its enumerators could face violence on the ground during data collection this year.
Earlier this week, people in Jarcha village in Greater Noida, bordering Delhi, allegedly manhandled and held captive government employees conducting the Seventh Economic Census for the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Similar incidents have been reported from at least nine States. The 78th Round of the NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) Socio-Economic Survey on domestic tourism expenditure may reportedly be postponed, apparently because surveyors are facing hostility in the field.
The Culprit: Widespread panic over the National Register of Citizens (NRC)
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government has, on multiple occasions, promised to create an NRC for the entire country. The exercise, without any precedent globally, would require every Indian to prove that they are a bonafide citizen.
The fear within: The NRC would initially be generated using data collected from the National Population Register. Those marked as “doubtful citizens” could be asked to furnish documents to prove their citizenship, failing which they would be declared “illegal migrants”. With millions of Indians lacking vital documents related to birth, the fear of losing citizenship have taken deep roots within poor and marginalised communities.
Where does NPR meet Census?: NPR data would be collected door-to-door alongside the Census, even though the two databases do not overlap. The clubbing of NPR data collection with the Census, say experts, could undermine the Census.
NPR And Census of India: The Distinction
The NPR and Census are not related in any way. The laws under which they are conducted are different and their uses are different. Census data informs government policy and is collated in anonymised form. The NPR, on the other hand, is the mother database for the NRC and is meant to single out “doubtful citizens”.
NPR
NPR is a register of "usual residents" of the country which is prepared at several levels including local (village/sub-town), subdistrict, district, state, and national. It comes under provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
Whereas Census of India
However, the Union government has decreed that data for both the Census and NPR will being collected simultaneously from each household by the same enumerator. And many would not be able to differentiate between them. This has the potential to put the exercise of conducting Census in danger.
Connecting the Dots:
Prelims oriented:
1872: Census was first conducted – During Lord Mayo’s Tenure
1881: Creation of Census department
1941: Department re-named as Registrar General of India
1949: Census dept. went under Ministry of Home affairs administrative control
2011: Caste based census conducted for the first time on the recommendation of Mandal Commission
2021: Paperless Census will be conducted for the first time - In a first, Census India-2021 will move away from the traditional pen and paper and will be conducted through a mobile phone
Section 15 of the Census Act prohibits any data collected by Census officials from being made public.