Census in India to go digital for the first time

The India government on Monday announced Rs 3,768 crore for the upcoming census. Announcing India’s first-ever digital census, Nirmala Sitharaman, who presented the Union Budget 2021-22 today, said the forthcoming census — an exercise to determine the population of the country — would be the first digital census in the history of India.

“For this monumental milestone marking task, I have allocated Rs Rs 3,768 crore for Financial Year 2021,” Nirmala Sitharaman said. FM Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the first paperless Union Budget in Parliament.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier announced that the 2021 census will be conducted through a mobile phone application. The decision to move away from traditional pen and paper was taken to promote Digital India.

“The process of a ‘Pen-Paper Census’ would be transformed to a ‘Digital Census’ in the 2021 Census exercise by using the latest technology,” Amit Shah said in New Delhi.

“Census data will be collected through a mobile app. This is for the first time that the mobile app will be used for the census exercise. India will be moving from the pen and paper census to digital data, which will be a big revolution in the country’s census exercise,” Amit Shah had said.

Amit Shah had said for the digital census, people would be able to upload the details of self and family on the newly developed mobile app themselves. The nationwide exercise will be carried out in 16 languages at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore, Amit Shah had said.