People would be encouraged to fill in the census data through a specially designed self-enumeration web portal without the help of an enumerator.
This will enable making available much more of the compiled tabulations of census data to the public faster than ever before and the government will be able to get the latest data quicker for policy formulation.
Digitisation of such a huge volume of data collected from the field has been a gigantic and resource-consuming task in the past, resulting in delayed processing and dissemination of results by almost a decade. The government feels that due to this, the data loses its significance for policy formulation and immediate planning. Hence, the big plan for India’s first ‘digital census’ has been made that will provide an opportunity to give the power into the hands of the public by making them a part of the census operations.
The citizens will be allowed to change the family member details, add new family members, as well as mark family members who have moved out or died: all this online on a portal. This data will be verified and audited and it will include more than 35 parameters of socio-economic status. But a 100% digital census may not be possible. The government could use a mix of data collection, one in which the census mobile application is used in the enumerator’s smartphone, and the other of the traditional way of filling data in a paper schedule if there are connectivity issues on the internet.
The portal involves giving secured and controlled access to a respondent’s family information and authentication based on pre-filled information available with ORGI and OTP sent to the registered cellphone number. The government changed the Census Rules in 2022 to account for ‘self-enumeration’ and to avoid litigation on the issue.