1st phase of census to focus on household enumeration

At the time when the protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), are continuing across TN, the government has issued a notification through a gazette stating that the Census 2021 will commence.

According to the gazette, the first phase of the Census exercise will focus only on households where details related to particulars of the establishment will be collected. There are 31 questions listed by the state government to be asked during the enumeration exercise.

Government sources said that the gazette notification is only for the first phase of Census and only in the second phase will personal details be collected. Out of the 31 questions listed, details such as building number, house number, number of people in the house, name of the household and so on will be asked.

The only personal detail in the list is the mobile number of the head of the household and it is also mentioned that the mobile number will be used only for Census relatedcommunication. Sources also said thatonly after the release of the second gazette on Census will the controversial questions be known to the general public.

The Central government has fixed the period of commencing Census from April to September, this year, but as far as the state is concerned, the census exercise isexpected to commence after June. “Census will commence in the state in June after the end of summer,” said Revenue Minister RB Udhayakumar, in the Assembly, on Wednesday.

After the Central government passed the CAA, the country witnessed massive protests against the legislation as protesters claimed that the Act is targeted against a particular section of the society.

Delhi witnessed violence against the protesters and since then the anti-CAA protest has been gaining momentum in Tamil Nadu. The principal opposition partyDMK had been pressing the State government to adopt a resolution against CAA and has been staging walkouts from the Assembly, almost on a daily basis.