Census 2021: Respondents will have option to fill details online

New Delhi, Jan 22: The Union Home Ministry has said that Census exercise will be conducted in February 2021. The respondents will have the option of filling their details on their own.

Home Ministry officials say that the population enumeration phase of the Census which will be carried out from February 9 to 28, 2021 will have the facility for online self enumeration. This means that the respondent can registers online and fill the details and share the reference number with the enumerator when they arrive.

Further, the ministry said that the Census Act of 1948 specifies a penalty for both public and census officials for non-compliance or violation of any provision of the Act.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the Indian Census is the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world. There are more than 30 lakh functionaries and the process is being conducted at the cost of Rs 8,700 crore.

It is the first-ever census to be conducted with a mixed model approach. A mobile application has been created. There is also a facility for online self enumeration for the public during the population enumeration phase, the spokesperson has also said.

On Monday, the Kerala government said that it would not cooperate with the updation of the NPR, saying there were fears among the public about the process and it has the "Constitutional responsibility" to alleviate them and ensure law and order.

"As the NPR is a process that leads to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), there is a sense of fear among the people that its implementation could lead to widespread insecurity", the Kerala CMO release said.