2021 Census data to be collected using mobile app: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday pitched for a multipurpose identity card for citizens with all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, driving licence and bank accounts, saying the "digital" census 2021 could pave way for this.

Laying the foundation stone for a new building of the Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner, Shah said a mobile app will be used for the first time in the Rs 12,000-crore census 2021, as the government intends to move the exercise from pen and paper to digital data.

"Why can't we have just one card for all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, bank account, driving licence, voter card? There should be a system where all the data should be put together in a single card. This is a potential. That is why digital census is very important," he said.

Shah said the process of a 'pen-paper census' will be transformed into a 'digital census' in the 2021 exercise and that there will be an option for people to upload details on the mobile app themselves. Availability of data in digital form will help in its detailed multi-dimensional analysis and utilisation for public welfare, he said.

The census will be conducted in 16 Indian languages and on the mobile app so as to help citizens easily update their details digitally, in their own language.

"The 2021 census will be an exercise in the study of human resources, public life, culture and economic infrastructure of the country. It will function as the building block for the scientific planning of future economic development. Constituencies will get delimited based on this census data, which will lead to the strengthening of democratic process in India at all levels," he said.

Shah also said this is the first time that the National Population Register (NPR) will come into being as a result of the census exercise. "This is a new initiative altogether which will be a solution to multifarious problems facing the country that range from effective maintenance of law and order to efficient implementation of welfare schemes like MGNREGS, food security and nutrition campaigns," he said.