Govt. contemplates merging National Population Register with 2011 Census preparation

New Delhi, Apr 24 : The Central Government is contemplating merging the preparation of the National Population Register (NPR) with the 2011 Census.

After inaugurating a two-day Data Users Conference for the 2001 Census, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said: "The data in the NPR will have specified characteristics of each individual. The photograph and finger biometrics will be added subsequent to the census."

He observed that the creation of NPR might usher in the era of register-based census in the country and would help in future to have the estimates of population on a real time basis by combining it with the system of registration of births and deaths in the country.

Expecting that the population of the nation to reach 1.20 billion by 2011, Patil said that the difficult areas and difficult populations should be identified in advance so that no person in any household is left unrecorded and no area is left untouched.

As the release of census data taking four to eight years from the date of completion of the exercise, Patil said efforts should be made to complete the task in two to three years.

He said this could be possible with use of technology not only at the stage of data capture and data processing, but even for pre-census planning and actual census taking.

"A committee headed by the Registrar General of India has been set up for strictly enforcing accountability of those involved in census taking. This is vital to make the census data authentic and unquestionable," he said.

The conference is organized by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commission of India and being attended by representatives of Central and State Governments and their affiliated bodies, a number of national level institutes and universities, eminent demographers and population experts who have been prime users of the census data for planning and research.

ANI