NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a mobile application for the 21st livestock census, which will also record pastoral communities for the first time in 100 years, officials said.Livestock census, which started in 1919, never officially counted pastoral communities spread across 22 states and their livestock. So far the census accounts for all domestic livestock (cattle, buffalo, mithun, yak, sheep, goat, pig, horse, pony, mule, donkey, camel, dog, rabbit, and elephant), and poultry birds (fowl and duck).“A distinctive capturing of the data of pastoral livestock is a unique effort of the 21st Livestock Census,” said an official.The four-month-long census exercise is scheduled to start from September 20 and the whole exercise will end by December this year. The census is a massive door-to-door survey conducted every five years by the Animal Husbandry Statistics for formulating policies and allocating resources for the livestock sector.“Date of launch of app is yet to finalise but it would be before September 20,” said an official privy to the development.To carry out the first pastoral census, the Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 35 civil society organisations (CSOs) across different states and Union territories. “These CSOs representatives will coordinate with enumerators and take them to the location of nomadic communities,” he said.So far pastoralism has never been a part of discussion among policy makers despite the fact that India is home to 13 million pastoralists spread across 22 states. “So there are no programmes and schemes made for these communities; however, their contribution to the country’s GDP is around 3%,” says Ramesh Bhati of the Centre for Pastoralism, one of the coordinators to the government for census of pastoral communities.“This census will mark the first step towards introducing livestock insurance and vaccination policies, rehabilitation schemes, and much more in years to come,” Bhati said.Earlier, there was confusion over definitions of pastoral communities, which delayed their census. Now the government defines pastoralists as a traditional community by migrating with the livestock for at least one month in a year. Their dependence on common resources (village commons, grazing sites and forest fringes) is also taken into account. So far 19 livestock censuses have been held. As in population census, primary workers undertake house-to-house enumeration and ascertain the number, age and sex of livestock/poultry possessed by every rural and urban household, enterprise and institution.
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