After four-year delay, Centre may commence population Census in 2025

The Centre plans to initiate the next census, an official survey of the nation's population, in 2025 after a four-year delay and the process is expected to continue till 2026, which means that future census cycles will be completely altered.

 

After the Census, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats will take place, with this process expected to be completed by 2028.

 

The development followed a week after the Centre extended the tenure of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, till 2026 to oversee the conduct of the decadal census.

 

The Opposition has been criticising the Narendra Modi-led coalition government for delaying the decadal Census programme, while demanding a caste-based Census. Initially scheduled for April 2020, the Census was first postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19. Since then, it remains on hold as the Centre has not yet announced a new schedule for the survey.

 

In August, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the Census will be carried out at an appropriate time. “Once decided, I will announce how it will be done,” he stated.

Will there be a caste Census?

In the June Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had promised to conduct a caste census if elected to power. Led by Rahul Gandhi, many opposition leaders had echoed the call for a caste census, alleging that the Centre was unfair in representation of the marginalised sections of the society.

 

In September, news agency PTI had reported that the Centre had started the preparations for conducting the decadal census but was yet to take any decision on including caste as a category. The Census has been held in India every 10 years since 1881 and is aimed at collecting a comprehensive demographic and socio-economic data of the population.  (With inputs from PTI)