The 2021 Census of India, also the 16th

Indian Census The decennial Census of India has been conducted 16 times, as of 2021. While it has been undertaken every 10 years, beginning in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, the first complete census was taken in 1881. Post 1949, it has been conducted by ...

, is intended to be carried out in 2023. In April 2019, a data user conference was held and it was announced that 330,000 enumerators would be enlisted and that they would be encouraged to use their own

smart phones A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which ...

, although a paper option will also be available, which the enumerators will then need to submit electronically. It was further announced that house listing will be conducted between April and September 2020, with actual enumeration in February 2021 and a revision round in March. The reference date will be 1 March 2021 in most of the states and 1 October 2020 for

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

and some areas of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

and

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

. In September 2019, Union Home Minister

Amit Shah Amit Anil Chandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician currently serving as the Minister of Home Affairs since 2019 and the first Minister of Co-operation of India since 2021. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata P ...

had stated that the 2021 national census would be done fully digitally through a mobile phone application. 2021 census will be carried out in 16 languages. In February 2021, Union Finance Minister

Nirmala Sitharaman Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian economist and politician serving as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India since 2019. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian Parliament, since 2014. S ...

allocated for the census in the

2021 Union budget of India The 2021 Union Budget of India was presented by the Minister of Finance on the 1st of February, 2021. The budget is the first one to be presented orally due to ongoing COVID pandemic. History The Union Budget is the annual financial report of ...

. It was delayed to 2022 and then further delayed to 2023 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). As of , according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest n ...

Information

House-listings

The House-listing schedule contains 31 questions:

Population enumeration

The Population enumeration.

NPR

National Population Register The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register of all Indian citizens whose creation is mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrant ...

will be linked to this census with preparations beginning from April 2020. NPR will be conducted along with the first phase of Census between April to September 2020. On 24 December 2019, the Central Government approved for updating the NPR across India.

Caste Enumeration in Census

The 15th Indian Census taken in 2011, attempted to estimate the population based on Socio-Economic and Caste Status for the first time since 1931. However, as the enumeration was based on recording the respondents' declaration, it led to creation of hundreds of thousands of

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

/subcaste categories. For the 16th Indian census, the government is instead considering enumeration based on a list of educationally or socially disadvantaged castes (known as Other Backward Class) reported by each state. However, in February 2020, the Indian government rejected the demand for OBC data as part of the 2021 census. In September 2018, the then

Home Minister The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minist ...

Rajnath Singh Rajnath Singh (; born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician serving as the Defence Minister of India. He is currently the Deputy Leader of the House Lok Sabha. He is the former President of Bharatiya Janata Party. He has previously served as t ...

, announced that the 2021 census will have

Other Backward Class The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, S ...

(OBC) data, for the first time since the 1931 census. Despite this announcement, the questionnaire presented in July 2019 did not have a specific OBC category. Several state legislative assemblies passed resolutions for collecting OBC data including the

Maharashtra Legislative Assembly The Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha or the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the legislature of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated in the Nariman Point area of South Mumbai in the capital Mumbai. Presently, 288 memb ...

Odisha Legislative Assembly The Odisha Legislative Assembly is the unicameral state legislature of Odisha state in India. The seat of the Legislative Assembly is at Bhubaneswar, the capital of the state. The Legislative Assembly comprises 147 Members of Legislative Ass ...

and

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated m ...

, while the

government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President of I ...

, rejected the opposition's demand to pass such a resolution. On 29 February 2020, central government refused to conduct caste census despite demands from states. Despite Centre's rejection,

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

legislators were adamant for caste based census at least in the state. Protest march in support of OBC census was carried out in

. Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment,

Ramdas Athawale Ramdas Bandu Athawale () (born 25 December 1959) is an Indian politician and social activist from Maharashtra. He is the president of the Republican Party of India (A), a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and has its roots in the S ...

also demanded carrying of census counting every single caste in India.

References

{{Census of India Censuses in India

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...