By Christian George
In a couple of months, India will be the announced the world’s most populous country, with a number that rises above 1.4 billion.
With this growing trend, it is believed that within a decade, the country may not be able to ascertain the total number of its population.
According to Reuters, India’s census which was due in 2021 was hampered by the pandemic and is now facing technical challenges due to the superfluous number.
Experts are of opinion that the delay in updating data like employment, housing, literacy levels, migration patterns and infant mortality, which are captured by the census, affects social and economic planning and policy making in the huge Asian economy.
Inability to get the data may pose a threat to economic planning as Rachna Sharma, a fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy stressed that studies like the consumption expenditure survey and the periodic labour force survey are estimations based on information from the census.
“In the absence of latest census data, the estimations are based on data that is one decade old and is likely to provide estimates that are far from reality,” Sharma said.
However, the home ministry official reiterated that the software that will be used to gather census data on a mobile phone app has to be synchronised with existing identity databases, including the national identity card, called Aadhaar, which was taking time.
