In the times of Aadhaar and Digital India does Census even have any meaning? I mean since the colonial times(1871 to be exact) Indians have been counted to keep track of the population. The most recent census was the 15th held in the year 2011. After the Aadhaar project was launched in 2010 Sept 30th nearly 88% of the population has been allotted an Aadhaar number.
Every 10 years school teachers are faced with enormous task of door-to-door survey in an area near their school. It is an onerous task which apart from election duties saps the energies of the teachers. The consumer affairs and public distribution department keeps track of families as a unit. There are other departments too like the health department which may be interested in ensuring family planning and hence keep records of the people. These demographic information collected during census does not go beyond data collection and analysis. Rarely is data from census used in any meaningful way as part of planning for welfare.
Planning and Implementation of Digital Census
Census data being collected at the family level, there should be a Data Collection Standards Committee which decides what data needs to be mandatory and what is optional. Next a digital database created which could be populated with census data collected from every enumerator. The digital census is not a new concept and it has been implemented in many other countries.
If aadhaar database is maintained well it would seem that there would not be any necessity of having a Census at all. Births and Deaths would be reflected in the aadhaar database. If aadhaar numbers of family members are collected during census and actual number of families or dwelling units counted it would aid in better targeting of subsidies.
Targeting of Subsidies to a Family
Since every family would be counted, this can make India a data rich nation. Epidemiological studies, Internal migration, econometric analysis etc can aid the government in reaching the masses in distress for help.
