No population Census - in the dark without vital data
- The Indian decadal Census has been delayed by more than three years now despite several concerns having been raised about the consequences of not having a Census.
- There is an overwhelming misconception among officials on substituting the Census with alternative ways and means of counting the population.
The need to understand many changes
- The Census is not limited to offer a population count. It includes a wide range of locational, familial and individual information that serves to understand the changing population dynamic in its entirety.
- The first and foremost limitation of avoiding a Census lies in the reliability of all our large-scale surveys such as National Family Health Survey and Periodic Labour Force Survey carried out on a Census frame that is one and a half decades old.
- Further, this decade-and-a-half has been a period of potential transformation not only in population count and its composition but also on many other features relating to education, occupation, employment, health (COVID-19) and livelihoods.
- Considering the significance of examining these features, delaying the Census sounds most irresponsible.
- A population Census is more than necessary to reveal these changes along with familial structures, locational distribution and occupational composition.
- Further, in the absence of a Census frame, the surveys carried out will be less reliable and representative which has been the basis of generating a whole host of SDG indicators.
- Given that the world population scenario is greatly influenced by Indian population features, it is essential to have the reality of its population features obtained in the Census rather than presuming estimated values based on past trends that depend on projections and extrapolations.
A pathway for the most populous nation
- In the prevailing SDG environment, there has been an obsession with regard to the generation of a wide range of indicators with disaggregation below the sub-national level.
- Such indicators pertain to many dimensions that need a standardisation by population count (not only aggregate but also its segmented count by age, sex and many other attributes), that is compromised in the absence of a Census.
- Approximated numbers or survey-based estimates are quite insufficient to represent changing realities.
- While the urgency and the immediacy of a Census exercise does not appear to be on the horizon, political masters are engaged in raising the need for a caste Census to serve their purposes.
- In fact, a caste auditing in India at a time when we claim everything to be rosy seems to be out of place.
- The history of the Census exercise makes it clear that such an auditing was made in its initial phases, and that its discontinuation must have a reason.
- No one should be misled that a caste auditing is backed by a genuine intent of reading inclusion of different caste groups. It is largely to establish differential entitlements citing a lack of representation and deprivation.
- However, tangible endowments are perhaps a limited way to diagnose deprivation rather than making an assessment of the intangible domains such as education and occupation.
- Unfortunately, there is a complete absence of any systematic assessment of mobility in the said domains of education and occupation against the axis of caste despite sustained affirmative action for so long.
- Scientific community should convey the need for a Census without any further delay to get out of the illusion that surveys and many other administrative statistics are a replacement for the Census.