Census 2021 To Be Conducted Through Mobile App In India, Says Amit Shah

For the first time in the 140-year history of India's census, a mobile app will be used to collect data for the population counting exercise scheduled to be conducted in March 2021, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday.

"A mobile App will be used in Census 2021. It will be a transformation from paper census to digital census," Shah stated while addressing an event in the national capital this morning. The app, build indigenously, will be also incorporated with a system that will update the population data automatically when a person dies.

The digital census was proposed in a bid to shorten the process of publication of result and in all probability, major part of data is likely to be available by 2023-2024. The complete data of the 2011 census was made available only after several years. It showed India's population at 121 crore at that time.

READ | International Tiger Day: Modi releases census report, says India 'safest habitats for them in world'

Shah also pitched for a multipurpose ID card which includes passport, Aaadhar Card and the Voter ID. The BJP president added the National Population Register is being prepared for the first time in the 2021 census.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah: A digital application, an app will be used for population census in the year 2021. It will be transformation from paper to digital census. pic.twitter.com/Xn992vekGz

— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2019

Census 2021, the world's largest enumeration exercise, will be conducted in two phases, the Government Of India confirmed in March this year. A total of 33 lakh enumerators, the persons who conduct door-to-door counting, are encouraged to use their own phone to collect data for which notification has already been issued.

READ | Modi government to conduct caste-wise census in 2021: Sushil Kumar Modi

In the first phase, house listing operations would be conducted in any two months chosen by the states between April and September in 2020. In the second phase, actual population enumeration would be done during February 9 to 28, 2021, followed by the revision round from March 1 to 5, 2021.

In Jammu and Kashmir and snow-bound areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, population enumeration would be conducted during September 11 to 30, 2020, followed by the revision round from October 1 to 5, 2020.

Meanwhile, a pre-test of Census 2021 is underway which is slated to end on September 30. The exercise was started on August 12, 2019.