Only Six religion options make it to next Census form

Context:

A report titled, “The Treatise on Indian Censuses Since 1981”, was released by Home Minister Amit Shah on May 22.

Six Religion Codes:

Census officials had designed detailed codes for religion on the basis of data collected during Census 2011.
However, they were dropped and only six religion codes (Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain) were retained in the final schedule.
- Nature- worshiping Adivasis in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have been campaigning to include their Sarna faith as a separate religion, while Karnataka’s Lingayats have been making a similar demand.
- Though respondents can write the name of any other religion, no separate code will be provided.

What’s new?

The digital Census respondents would have the comfort to fill it at their own home.
Questions included:
- On the mode of travel to the place of work, respondents will have to answer it in hours and minutes, and whether they use metro rail.
- On types and causes of disabilities; expanded to include “acid attack, intellectual disability, chronic neurological disease and blood disorder”.
- Also record details whether a person lives in a rented house, owns a house somewhere else or does not own any residential property.
- On availability of drinking water; “near the premises” means “within 100 meters in urban areas” and “within 500 meters in rural areas”.

Directory to reduce bias:

For the first time, a code directory — containing possible responses and their matching codes for questions involving descriptive and non-numeric entries — has been prepared for the use of enumerators during the second phase of Census 2021.
It has codes in respect of Relationship to Head, Mother Tongue and Other Languages Known, Occupation, Nature of Industry, Trade or Service, Birth Place/Place of last residence and Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) etc.
Data processing of these descriptive responses required human intervention to codify into required data format as per the tabulation plan.
It also involved risk to data bias and errors because of diverse judgment of enumerators and the persons codifying the response as well.

Census:

The process of collecting, compiling, analyzing and disseminating demographic, social, cultural and economic data relating to all persons in the country, at a particular time in a ten year interval.

Historical Background:

The earliest literature ‘Rig Veda’: Reveals about some kind of population count.
Kautilya’s Arthasastra: Census taking as a measure of State policy for purpose of taxation.
King Akbar: The administrative report ‘Ain-e-Akbari’ included comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics
The first Census was conducted in India in 1872 (Governor-General Lord Mayo).
The first complete synchronous Census was conducted in 1881.

Census Act, 1948:

Provided for the permanent scheme of conducting population Census with duties and responsibilities of Census Officers.
The Act makes it obligatory on the part of every citizen to answer the Census question truthfully and also penalises for giving false information.
It makes provisions for the maintenance of secrecy of the information collected at the Census of each individual.
Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under Ministry of Home Affairs is responsible for conducting the decennial Census.