Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, September 23, said that a mobile app will be used in the next census of India which will be carried out in the year 2021. "A mobile app will be used in Census 2021. It will be a transformation from paper census to digital census," Shah said.
While addressing a gathering at an event in the national capital, Shah proposed the idea of a multipurpose identity card for every citizen with all utilities like passport, Aadhaar, voter card, driving licence and bank accounts. "We can have just one card for all utilities like Aadhaar, passport, bank account, driving licence, voter card. This is a potential," Shah said.
Amit Shah said that the Census 2021 data will be collected through a mobile app. The Home Minister also said that there should also be a system that when a person dies, the information is updated in the population data automatically.
Elaborating on the topic, Shah said that the process of compiling the population census is an exercise that helps to provide people with the benefits of government schemes and added that the National Population Register (NPR) will help the government solve many issues in the country. "Population census is not a boring exercise," said the Home Minister, "It is an exercise that helps to provide people with the benefits of the government schemes. National Population Register (NPR) will help the government solve many issues in the country."
The NPR is being prepared for the first time in the 2021 census, says Shah. He also said that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will spend around 12, 000 crores on NPR and census this time, which is the highest among all the census conducted so far.
What is National Population Register?
The National Population Register (NPR) is a Register of usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
NPR is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more.
