The fact that questions are still being raised about what the government can or will do with data collected during the Census, suggests that there are still apprehensions of it being used without consent for other purposes, specifically a database of citizens.

Perhaps this is what prompted Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Dr. Kirodilal Meena to ask “whether information obtained from the 2021 Census will be used for the preparation of any other databases, such as the National Register of Citizens (NRC),” and also “whether this will be disclosed to respondents before obtaining the information for the Census…”

Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai submitted a written response to this saying, “The individual data are not used for the preparation of any other database including National Register of Citizens.” He further clarified, “The individual data collected in Census under the Census Act, 1948 are not made public as per the provisions contained in the Act. Only the aggregated Census data at various administrative levels are released.”

Referring to Covid-19 related delays, Rai said, “The Census scheduled in 2021 and related field activities got postponed until further orders due to the outbreak of COVID19 pandemic.” He also said, “This upcoming Census is to be the first digital Census wherein there is also a provision for self-enumeration. Mobile Apps for collection of data and a Census Portal for management and monitoring of various Census related activities have been developed.”

In fact, even the MHA’s Annual report of 2019-2020 had stated that the NPR will be updated in three ways. Two methods allow you to update your information yourself – using a web portal, or a mobile phone app. The third is by house-to-house enumeration in paper format. It clearly states that no documents or biometrics will be collected during the update process. 

The entire response may be read here: 

In January this year, SabrangIndia had reported that the first phase of Census accompanied with National Population Register (NPR) exercise that was due to kickstart in April 2020, was postponed once again until September 2022. The first phase of Census includes the Houselisting and Housing Census and this time it was to be accompanied by the updating of the NPR, which had created much controversy and opposition. The reason being that NPR was seen as the first step towards the National Register of Citizens (NRC). A detailed analysis of a combination of Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) along with NPR and NRC may be read here.

The houselisting phase collects data on the house, the amenities in the house, like toilet, electricity, water supply. The second phase is about the members in the household.

Census is the primary source of basic national population data required for administrative purposes and for many aspects of economic and social research and planning. Not only are constituencies demarcated on the basis of the census but national, local, urban and rural income estimates as also crucial aspects of what levels of access to services and amenities our people have can be determined with an honest collation of this data. Meaning this data is important so that governments can formulate policies and welfare schemes tailored to the needs of the population data that is its people need. Census Data remains the most credible source of information on Demography (Population characteristics), Economic Activity, Literacy and Education, Housing & Household Amenities, Urbanisation, Fertility and Mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Language, Religion, Migration, Disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data.

The NPR contains details of persons usually residing in a village or rural area or town or ward or demarcated area within a ward in a town or urban area. According to the official website of the Registrar General and the Census Commissioner, “The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive database of usual residents in the country. No document will be collected during this exercise.”

The electronic database of more than 119 crore usual residents of the country has already been created under NPR which was created in 2010 along with House listing and Housing Census 2010. The Government of India has also stated that the NPR Database has been updated during 2015-16 in all States/UTs (except Assam and Meghalaya) to make a comprehensive resident database.

Related:

Census-NPR postponed once again until Sept’22

MHA to allow self-updating NPR through web portals

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Even as providing several urbanization criteria existing across the world, the top report, which has been prepared under the guidance of chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, appears to favour the urbanization definition based on the use of satellite data based of the Global Human Settlements Layer (GHSL) of the Group on Earth Observations at the European Commission.

Using this data, the report says, “India was 63% ‘urban’ in 2015 — more than double the urbanization rate estimated by the 2011 Census”, adding, based on this, there is a need to “go into a much greater level of spatial detail… to uncover important insights for promulgating expeditious public policy at centre, state and urban local body level.”
 

Urbanization is States under different criteria

The GHSL data looks at “high density clusters” for analyzing urbanization, supported by three important criteria: (a) 4 contiguous cells with at least 1,500 persons per square kilometer, (b) minimum of 50,000 persons per cluster, and (c) density of built-up area greater than 50%.
“The GHSL data is processed fully automatically and generates analytics and knowledge reporting objectively and systematically about the presence of population and built-up infrastructures”, the report states, adding, “The approach is still experimental and we hope to refine it and apply it in many new fields and geographies.”

Pointing out that “India is rapidly urbanizing”, the report asks, “But does the 2011 census based urbanisation rate of 31.2% fairly capture it?”

It says, urbanisation in India is officially defined by two metrics, administrative and census. Under administrative only the population living in areas governed by urban local bodies are covered. Under census, the criteria include population of at least 5,000, density of at least 400 persons per square kilometre, and at least 75% of the male main working population engaged in non-agricultural activities.
 

Using the administrative definition, India was approximately 26% urban in 2011, while under the census definition, it was 31.2%. Pointing towards the discrepancy, the report says, “Kerala is 15% urban by the administrative definition, but 47.7% by the census definition.”

Noting different definitions adopted across the world to identify urban population, the report says, “In countries like Ghana and Qatar, all settlements with 5000+ population are deemed urban. India would be 47% urban in 2011 by this definition. In Mexico and Venezuela, a 2500+ threshold is employed. India would be 65% urban in 2011 by this definition. Kerala is 99% urban both by the 5000+ and 2500+ population definitions.”

It further notes, “A 2016 World Bank report (click HERE) uses an agglomeration index to measure urbanisation and finds that more than half the population in India is urban. Research by Jana, Sami, and Seddon finds that if we relax the population size and occupation categories and only use the density criteria of 400 persons per square kilometer, India is around 78% urban.”

“It finds that even if we use density criteria of 800 persons per square kilometre, India will still be more urban (55%); far more than the current official numbers suggest. The point is that different definitions give very different answers and the appropriateness of a particular framework really depends on the application”, the report says.
 

Urbanization in Kozhikode, Kerala

Insisting that “urbanization is not black-and-white as there are many shades of semi-urban settlements”, the report underlines the need for recognizing that “cities are regarded as ‘engines of growth’ for economies”, and it is the confluence of capital, people and space in cities which “unleashes the benefits of agglomeration, creating a fertile environment for innovation of ideas, technologies and processes which produce huge economic returns.”

Additionally, the report says, “Cities in India generate two-thirds of national GDP, 90 per cent of tax revenues and the majority of formal sector jobs, with just a third of the country’s population”, one reason why the Government of India has sought “a major policy response” through the Smart City Mission.

Courtesy: Counterview.net

The post India’s Urbanisation Data: Economic Survey Challenges Census Data of 2011 appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In 2011, after several years of deliberation and under pressure from the Supreme Court, the Union government under the United Progressive Alliance decided to conduct a socio-economic and caste census. This followed massive protests that had broken out in 2006 against the Centre’s decision to reserve government jobs and seats in higher educational institutions for members of the Other Backward Classes. The court said that it needed concrete data on caste numbers so that it could determine whether the quota limit, which it set at 50% in 1992, could be altered.

But six years after the caste census was completed, there is no sign of the caste component of the data being released, though a small part on the economic conditions was put out in 2014.

In the meantime, state governments have begun challenging the 50% limit. In April, for instance, the Telengana government decided to increase quotas for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes. In 2015, the state government had set up the Sudhir commission to study the Muslim community’s conditions. It was found that despite constituting 12% of the state population, Muslims got only 7.6% of government jobs. The community was also lagging behind in education. By increasing the quota for Muslims to 12% from the existing 4%, the Telengana government went way past the 50% ceiling.

In order to avoid judicial intervention, the state government said the reservations for Muslims had nothing to do with religion: it contended that the quota was alloted on the basis of the community’s economic backwardness. However, the courts have struck down previous attempts to create quotas for religious groups. They have not viewed the economic argument favourably as the Constitution recognises only educational and social backwardness.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had also cited the example of Tamil Nadu, where quotas are as high as 69%. A challenge to Tamil Nadu’s reservation policy is currently before a nine-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court.

What does this confusion really say about India’s policy of affirmative action? First, the Supreme Court’s decision to cap reservations at 50% has been criticised widely for its arbitrariness. Some have argued that such a cap allows members of the upper castes to corner a disproportionate share of resources, since they dominate the 50% of jobs and seats left to open competition.

Secondly, the only reason that could be cited for the Centre’s failure to release the caste data is its reluctance to take on upper caste interests. In the process, not only is the Centre denying vulnerable communities their legitimate share of reservations, it is also risking the danger of the caste census being dismissed as dated. In the meantime, the absence of quality data on caste and socio-econimic condition is leading to what the Supreme Court termed as “competitve backwardness”. Even historically well-off groups, such as Patels in the Gujarat and the Jats in North India, are seeking reservations, to the detriment of weaker communities.

There was also the question of federal rights involved in this debate. By holding back the caste census data, the Centre is also indirectly limiting the powers of state legislatures from making changes to the reservation law since they are unable to get the 50% ceiling lifted in the courts.

Courtesy: Scroll.in
 

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