The Census enumeration scheduled to take place in 2021 has been further pushed to 2024-25 until further orders.
Key points
- In a letter sent to all states and Union Territories, the office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) has extended the deadline of freezing of administrative boundaries to June 30, 2023.
- The Census enumeration can only begin three months after administrative boundaries are frozen and as general elections are scheduled early next year, the possibility of a Census in 2023 is ruled out.
- The Census enumeration will be preceded by house-listing enumeration where the exercise for National Population Register (NPR) is to be held.
- Earlier, the deadline for jurisdictional changes was December 31, 2022, and before that, June 30, 2022.
- In March 2022, the government had notified certain amendments to Census Rules to allow citizens to self-enumerate themselves in the Census and National Population Register (NPR).
- As per Rule 8(iv) of Census Rules, 1990, the boundaries of the administrative units shall be frozen from the date intimated by the Census Commissioner, which shall not be earlier than one year from the Census reference date.
- Before every Census, states are required to provide information to the RGI on changes in the number of notified districts, villages, towns and other administrative units such as tehsils, talukas and police stations in a state since the last Census.
- The boundaries of administrative units are frozen three months before the commencement of Census. In this period, the data is compiled and shared with RGI which begins its preparatory work for the Census.
(Source: Indian Express)
