VisionIAS
14:11
📰 Shah moots 1 card for all utilities
Home Minister says 2021 census will be digital and could prepare a base for it
•Announcing that the 2021 census exercise would be carried out digitally, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday suggested one card for all utilities in future.
•Speaking at the foundation stone laying ceremony for construction of a new building of the Registrar General of India (RGI) that conducts census, he said the digital census had the potential to bring all cards such as Aadhaar, passport, bank account, and driving licence on one platform. “Why is it so difficult to link and update birth and death registration with census data,” he wondered.
No formal proposal
•He said there was no formal proposal for the common utility card, but digital census had the potential of preparing the base for it.
•The decennial census exercise will be undertaken in 2021 and, for the first time, move from paper to digital format. Mr. Shah said Rs. 12,000 crore would be spent on preparation of the National Population Register (NPR) and census.
•Mr. Shah said the NPR would be updated on a priority basis as it helps in tracking criminal activities, and better planning and execution of government schemes. The NPR links biometric and demographic details of any ordinary resident, thus making it a comprehensive database of residents.
•The exercise was conducted earlier in two phases in 2010 and 2015. The next round of recording biometric and family tree details of Indian citizens will be conducted in September 2020, a government notification issued earlier said.
•The NPR exercise is different from the census and is not linked to the National Register of Citizens (NRC). For the purpose of the NPR, an ordinary resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.
•Mr. Shah said the Census 2021 data would be the base for the country’s future planning, development initiatives and welfare schemes, and people’s wholehearted participation would be the key to the success of the exercise.
•“India’s 130 crore population should be informed about its benefits. The utilisation of census data is multi-dimensional, and will be a significant contribution in the nation’s progress,” he said.
•He said on the basis of the 2011 Census, the Modi government had planned 22 welfare schemes related to electricity, gas connections, roads, houses for the poor, toilets, bank accounts, and opening of bank branches.
•He cited the example of the government’s flagship ‘Ujjwala’ scheme of providing free LPG connections to poor families, saying it has been successful as the scheme was prepared on the basis of the 2011 census data.
•“By 2022, there will not be a family which will not have a gas connection,” he said.
•Mr. Shah also said the 2011 Census reflected the poor sex ratio in some States. That’s why the programme of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ was launched.
Haryana surges ahead
•“Under this scheme, the Haryana government has done so much work in the last five years that the State’s sex ratio is now among the best in the country,” he said.
•He said India’s population is 17.5% of the world’s, while the geographical area is just 2.4%.
•“So, naturallly, India has limited natural resources in comparison to the population. Therefore, to fill up this gap of inequality, we will have to work hard,” he said.
•He said the census would help in demarcating boundaries of municipal wards and the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.
