Shaikh Saleem
MUMBAI—There are reports that there may be no census. Why? Is India so weak that it cannot count its population anymore?
Indians managed a census without fail every decade despite higher poverty, instability, and external threats.
Why doesn’t the government want to do a census before 2024? Maybe because it will be able to avoid caste census (OBC). If caste census or empirical data figures come out, we’ll know who has cornered most of India’s wealth and left nothing for the vast majority of Indians.
Beneficiaries under Food Security Act are based on the 2011 census. However, the government has not added new beneficiaries. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that 80 crore people will get subsidized ration to ease difficulty because of COVID-19. However, experts estimate that at least ten crore people have been excluded. The government says it will wait for the new census to increase beneficiaries. What happens to the hungry and deprived sections if there is no census?
Census is a constitutional necessity for delimitation, carving out SC/ST reserved seats, etc. Even if delimitation is frozen till the 2031 census, the 2021 census would have helped us understand which states will gain a disproportionate number of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats at the cost of less populous states.
Census means the headcount of our entire country. It can’t be replaced with data based on Aadhaar. However, reports suggest that the Aadhaar data may be used instead of the census. This is ridiculous. How can VAX ( Virtual Address extension) data tell us about religious, socio-economic, and caste data?
Like the 2011 Census, the 2021 census would have busted the propaganda of “population explosion” or fears of a large Muslim population taking over India. However, the government seems to avoid the census because the population data may be inconvenient for the ruling establishment.
But census data is essential because it collects information on languages spoken by people in different regions. The rights of linguistic and religious minorities under Articles 29 and 30 depend on their total numbers. Therefore, not carrying out a census harms people’s fundamental rights.
Please don’t be triggered by the word “minority.” It includes Hindus who speak minority languages also. We also need to know the status of languages that are endangered or at risk of disappearing. This is only possible with the census.
Census will help design better policies for the disabled (beyond just “renaming” them). It will also help upgrade the number of poor, elderly, and women under government schemes. It is in the government’s interest to keep these numbers low. It is in our national interest to have correct numbers.
Census also helps in tracking inter-state migrants and their economic status. This data is essential to prevent disasters like short notice brutal lockdowns that forced thousands to walk back home. But for PM Modi, “no data” seems to be the best excuse.
Most importantly, it’s not only pandemic that’s to blame. PMs illogical idea of linking NPR/NRC with census caused suspicion amongst masses. NPR is an illegal exercise that collects identifiable private information. Census only collates aggregated data.
The government has already told the Parliamentary panel that it can wrap up most census work by 2023-24. So let’s reduce the workload of census enumerators further by not carrying out NPR, with additional government support and reduced workload.
Our census officers can wrap up the exercise before the 2024 elections. And suppose we include COVID-19 related data like how many people got infected, how many got treatment from government hospitals, and how many were denied treatment because of lack of facilities like hospitals, ventilators, oxygen, medicine, etc.. In that case, we will be able to make corrections in our health sector, which is underdeveloped.
Let data clearly show how much poverty and joblessness have increased in Modi’s two terms.
The author is a former president of the Welfare Party of India, Maharashtra unit.
