India's census delay hinders policymaking

'Open rivalry with data'

The main opposition Congress party and critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have accused the government of delaying the census to hide data on politically sensitive issues, such as unemployment, ahead of national elections in 2024.

"This government has often displayed its open rivalry with data," said party spokesman Pawan Khera. "On important matters like employment, COVID deaths, et cetera, we have seen how the Modi government has preferred to cloak critical data."

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's national spokesperson, Gopal Krishna Agarwal, dismissed the criticism.

"I want to know on what basis they are saying this. Which is the social parameter on which our performance in nine years is worse than their 65 years?" he said, referring to the Congress party's years in power.

The United Nations has projected India's population could reach 1,425,775,850 on April 14, overtaking China on that day.

The 2011 census had put India's population at 1.21 billion, meaning the country has added 210 million — nearly the number of people in Brazil — to its population in 12 years.

India's census is conducted by about 330,000 government schoolteachers who first go door-to-door listing all houses across the country and then return to them with a second list of questions.

They ask more than 20 questions each time in 16 languages in the two phases that will be spread over 11 months, according to the 2021 plan.

The numbers will be tabulated, and the final data will be published months later. The entire exercise was estimated to cost 87.5 billion rupees ($1.05 billion) in 2019.

However, teachers have returned to school after the pandemic disruption, putting a new wrench in the census plans.

Arvind Mishra, a senior official at the All-India Primary Teachers Federation which has 2.3 million members, said teachers are bound by law to help conduct elections and the census. They have to conduct nine state elections this year and national elections in 2024, along with the census, and this would again disrupt their teaching.

Payments have also become an issue. Mishra said by law, the government must pay the teachers more for their efforts.

"They must roll out a systematic payment mechanism for the drill. Teachers deserve respect, and they can't be running around demanding reimbursement for conducting the largest counting exercise on Earth."

Agencies Via Xinhua