MHA allays concerns over Census delay amid mounting criticism from Oppn

New Delhi: With Census being pushed to 2027 inviting criticism, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday defended the action, saying conducting the exercise immediately after Covid-19 pandemic could have disrupted primary education “immensely” and that the countries which carried out Census soon after had faced quality and coverage issues.

It also sought to allay concerns over delimitation and cited Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks earlier that concerns of the southern states will be taken care of and discussions will be held at appropriate time.

The MHA statement on ‘X’ came as Opposition parties like Congress and DMK raised questions over pushing the much delayed decennial Census further to 2027. Congress said there was “really no reason” to delay it further while DMK claimed that it was done to enable delimitation of Parliament and Assemblies that may end up as a loss to Tamil Nadu.

Seeking to counter the allegations, MHA spokesperson said the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic across the country forced postponement of the Census 2021 though all preparations were completed. The aftershock of Covid-19 continued for quite some time, the spokesperson said. The last time India conducted a Census was in 2011.

With Covid-19 disrupting all sectors, including education, the spokesperson said that around 30 lakh enumerators were needed for the exercise and primary teachers as enumerators were key persons for conducting the Census while insisting that conducting the exercise after Covid-19 could have “disrupted primary education immensely”.

As the Opposition pointed to other countries conducting the exercise, the Opposition said countries which conducted the Census immediately after Covid-19 faced issues on quality and coverage of Census data. The government has now decided to start the process of the census, which will be completed on 1 March, 2027, the reference date for the Census, the spokesperson said.

The government also faced criticism over lower budgetary allocation. The spokesperson said the budget “has never been a constraint” for the Census as funds are always ensured by the government.

On delimitation, the spokesperson said Home Minister Amit Shah had already clarified “on many occasions” that in the delimitation exercise, “concerns of southern states will be taken care of and discussed with all concerned at an appropriate time”.

Soon after the government on Wednesday announced that it will conduct the Census 2027 along with caste enumeration in two phases, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin raked up the delimitation issue once again saying, it would negatively impact his state that has performed well in containing population.

“The Indian Constitution mandates that delimitation must follow the first Census after 2026. The BJP has now delayed the Census to 2027, making their plan clear to reduce Tamil Nadu’s Parliamentary representation,” he said.

“I had warned about this. It is now unfolding. By siding with the BJP, (AIADMK leader) E Palaniswami is not just silent but complicit in this betrayal. It's now clear that he has surrendered to Delhi’s domination. The people of Tamil Nadu are united as one in their demand for a Fair Delimitation. We need clear answers from the Union Government,” he said.

As per the Constitution, India has to conduct delimitation of seats based on a Census after 2026. The country has not seen an increase in the number of seats in Parliament and Assemblies after 1976, when the number of constituencies were frozen.

Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh has said that there was “really no reason to delay the Census that was due in 2021 for another twenty three months" and that the Modi Govt is "capable only of generating headlines, not meeting deadlines”.