Census rules amended to allow self-enumeration, digital data collection

The Union government has amended the Census Rules framed in 1990 to allow the details to be captured and stored in an electronic format and also to enable self-enumeration by respondents. The first phase of Census 2021 — Houselisting and Housing Census along with updating the National Population Register — was scheduled to be held from April-September 2020 but was postponed indefinitely. On March 11, the Registrar-General of India notified the amended Census rules in the Gazette, which said that “a person may fill-up, complete and submit the census schedule through self-enumeration”. According to the annual report of the Union Home Minister for the year 2019-20, there will be a three-pronged approach for updating the NPR database: self updating, wherein it is proposed to allow residents to update their own data fields after following some authentication protocols on a web portal; updating of NPR data in the paper format; and on the mobile mode.