Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Feb 15, 2025

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream

In April 2023, the UN Population Fund revealed that India had overtaken China in population numbers. It was odd that an external entity provided these population figures, while, India’s own very robust systems with demographic data have been silent since the last decadal census they held in 2011. It is increasingly a mystery as to how India’s bureaucracy is being able to adequately envision and plan for the needs of citizens and keep track of the overall figures in the absence of a national census. The census scheduled for 2021 was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has been repeatedly delayed. The Modi government’s Union budget for 2025-26 recently made a provision of 574 crores for holding a census, but it is surprising that this figure is way below its own provisional figures of 2019. News reports say that this much-delayed census will not be held in 2025 either [1]. Senior leader of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi has rightly expressed concern over this matter. It is time for the entire parliamentary opposition to unitedly demand that the Government plan for holding the next census as soon as possible. Census data is imperative for adequate needs of governance.

February 15, 2025 —HK