Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ NEW DEHLI: India is projected to become the world’s most populous country with over 1.4 billion people in the next two months, but for at least the next one year, or possibly longer, the country won’t be able to know about the exact number of citizens because it has not counted them for years.
India’s once-in-the-decade census, due in 2021 and delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has now got bogged down by technical and logistical hurdles and there is no sign that the mammoth exercise will begin soon.
Census delayed to estimate total population
Experts say a delay in updating data like the total population, employment, literacy levels, housing, migration patterns and infant mortality, all covered by the census, was affecting social and economic planning and policy making in the rising Asian economy, Reuters said.
Calling census information “indispensable”, Rachna Sharma, a fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, said that studies like consumption expenditure surveys and a periodic labour force survey were estimations based on data from the census.
Sharma said that “In the absence of the latest census information, the estimations have been based on information/data that is one decade old and likely to provide estimates that are far from reality.”
India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said that census data from 2011 was being used for projections and estimates required to assess Indian government spendings.
A spokesman for the ministry of statistics said that its role was limited to providing possible projections and could not comment on the census process. The Indian Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comments from Reuters.
