The first post-independence census was conducted in 1951, and since then, a total of seven censuses have been carried out until 2011, at intervals of every ten years. However, for the first time since independence, the 2021 census, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has yet to take place.
With the approval of the Kovind Committee‘s report on “One Nation, One Election” by the Cabinet, hopes for conducting the census have risen, as it is crucial for the delimitation of the Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies.
There is currently a demand for a caste-based census in the country. The British Raj conducted a caste-based census in 1931, in line with their “divide and rule” policy. However, the political parties advocating for a caste-based census today did not release the data of the caste-based census conducted in 2011.
Once again, efforts are being made to drag the country into the quagmire of caste politics. Caste-based census has now become a political issue because it paves the way for influencing votes through freebies and gaining power. If the taxpayers, whose money funds these schemes by which the political parties influence the voters by electoral promises, demand a caste-based sharing among taxpayers, political parties will find themselves in a dilemma.
To build a strong India, we must not view society through the lenses of caste, religion, language, or region. These divisive policies must be eliminated. For this the government should encourage inter-caste marriages and provide benefits based on economic status rather than caste. Despite seven censuses being conducted since independence, we still lack in real-time data. Every government department conducts its own surveys for various schemes, issues identity cards, prepares data, and spends thousands of crores on these efforts. For instance, if the government wants to implement a scheme for widows, there is no accurate data available on the current number of widows in the country. How can effective policies be formulated without accurate data? In this year’s budget, around ?1,310 crore has been allocated for the census. From 2009 to 2024, approximately ?17,467 crore has been spent on creating Aadhaar cards. Similarly, the central and state governments spend lakhs of crores rupees on numerous other schemes and beneficiary identification surveys, such as BPL surveys, NHFS surveys, child surveys, Ujjwala Yojana, Ayushman Yojana, food schemes, Kisan Samman Nidhi, voter ID cards, ration cards, family registers, family identification certificates, caste certificates, and inheritance certificates. If the Indian government had created a central database for each citizen, on the basis of which all government benefits could be provided, it would have saved thousands of crores rupees spent annually on surveys and beneficiary identification.
Citizens would also not need to visit different government offices to avail of these benefits. If the central government verifies this census through Aadhaar numbers and conducts it online, while linking it with PAN cards, voter ID cards, family registers, family identification certificates, caste certificates, birth-death certificates, and marriage-divorce registrations, then in the future, we will not need to spend thousands of crores rupees every year on any kind of surveys or beneficiary identification.
This way, we will always have real-time data available for generations to come, and it will also prevent people from obtaining fake certificates to avail of benefits. Therefore, the Indian government should use this census to create a national database. Through the CRS portal, family numbers should automatically increase or decrease upon the issuance of birth and death certificates. Additionally, if marriage and divorce registrations are made mandatory through this census, we will have all the necessary data related to each family. To prevent misuse of taxpayers’ money in the future, for policy-making, and for the nation’s progress, it is imperative that the Indian government pays attention to this matter.
