NEW DELHI, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government on Tuesday said census 2021 and related field activities have been postponed until further orders due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Indian government made the announcement in parliament that is currently in session.
"The intent of the government for conducting census 2021 was notified in Gazette of India on 28th March, 2019. Due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the census 2021 and related field activities have been postponed," Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in the lower house of the Indian parliament.
The minister further said the forthcoming census will be carried out digitally.
"The forthcoming census is to be the first digital census. Mobile Apps for collection of data and a census portal for management and monitoring of various census related activities have been developed," he said.
Census in India is a decadal exercise to enumerate the country's population. It is one of the largest administrative and statistical exercises in the world. Officials say the exercise requires visiting every household across the country for the purpose of enumeration and involves the services of 3 million employees.
The minister further said the Indian government has not enumerated caste-wise population other than Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the census since independence.
SCs and STs are officially designated disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. ■