State Census offices told to monitor online narratives, Pg12

Key Highlights:

• The Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) has directed state Census Directorates to monitor social media for false narratives against Census 2027.
• The first phase of Census 2027, the House Listing and Housing Operations (HLO), began on April 1 in eight States and Union Territories.
• The second phase, Population Enumeration, which will also enumerate caste, will conclude by February 28, 2027, except in certain hilly regions.
• The RG&CCI emphasizes the importance of public awareness campaigns to ensure accurate data collection and reassure the public about data confidentiality.

Detailed Insights:

• The RG&CCI has launched a self-enumeration portal, with door-to-door verification by Census enumerators starting April 15, following the online enumeration.
• State Directorates are instructed to establish 24/7 teams to manage social media accounts and counter adverse comments or propaganda in real-time.
• The publicity campaign aims to inform the public about the questions asked during the two phases of the Census and build trust in the process.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs previously addressed miscommunication around the National Population Register (NPR) and Census in 2020.
• The Census, a decennial exercise last held in 2011, was initially postponed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The government decided not to update the NPR during the current Census, following protests related to its link with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Census: A decennial exercise involving the enumeration of the population, providing demographic and socio-economic data.
• National Population Register (NPR): A record of usual residents of the country, collected during the Census.
• National Register of Citizens (NRC): A register containing names of Indian citizens.
• Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019: An act that offered a path to Indian citizenship for religious minorities who have fled persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.