NEW DELHI: The Centre has begun preparations for conducting the much-delayed decadal census anytime soon, though a decision to include a column on caste as part of the exercise has not yet been taken, sources in the government said on Sunday.The country has witnessed holding the decadal census exercise since 1881.The rolling out of the first phase of the census for this decade was was initially proposed to begin on April 1, 2020, but postponed due to the onset of COVID-19 pandemic.Incidentally, the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act, which was enacted last year, has also been linked to the conduct of the census – 2021, as reserving one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies “shall come into effect after an exercise of delimitation is undertaken based on the relevant figures of the first census recorded after the Act has come into force.”On the issue of the Opposition’s demand for conducting a caste census, a source, on the condition of anonymity, said, “no decision has yet been taken to include a column on caste as part of the exercise.”In the absence of the latest population data available to policymakers in the government due to delayed census, all central and state agencies are allocating subsidies based on data from the 2011 census.The entire census and the NPR exercise is likely to cost the government more than Rs 12,000 crore, sources said. This will be the first digital census. Citizens will be given an opportunity to self-enumerate, sources said. The NPR has been made compulsory for the citizens, who want to exercise the right to fill the census form on their own rather than through government enumerators. For this, the census authority has designed a self-enumeration portal, which is yet to be launched. During self-enumeration, Aadhaar or mobile number will be mandatorily collected.The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner prepared 31 questions to be asked. Those questions include whether a family has a telephone, internet connection, mobile or smartphone, bicycle, scooter or motorcycle or moped, whether they own a car, jeep or a van.The citizens will also be asked what cereal they consume in the household, main source of drinking water, main source of lighting, access to toilet, type of toilet, waste water outlet, availability of bathing facility, availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection, main fuel used for cooking, availability of radio, transistor and television.
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