On Friday, West Bengal government officials stayed away from a meeting called by the union home ministry, which had state chief secretaries and the director of census operations together to discuss the modalities of the 2021 Census of India. However, the state has not fully pulled out of the Census exercise, as the IAS officer in charge of West Bengal's Census operations attended the meeting.
An official said that the Census exercise is not being opposed by the states, adding that notifications in this regard have been issued. However, the ministry is also aware that this will require logistical support, preparations and training of staff—for which the cooperation of the state government is needed.
In the face of opposition from states like West Bengal and Kerala over the National Population Register (NPR) exercise, the smooth conduct of Census 2021 has become the primary concern of the Union home ministry as both exercises need to be carried out simultaneously.
This time around, the Ministry of Home Affairs wants to reduce the time taken by the exercise and maximise the use of the digital medium, said a senior official who attended the meeting, adding that various options are being considered to make the process quick and smooth.
The home ministry has told states that individuals will not be forced to share their Aadhaar details for the updating of the NPR during the door to door enumeration.
The home ministry will continue the meeting on Saturday, when the aspects of logistics, training and digital support for the exercises are expected to come up for discussion.
On Friday, the Union home ministry was seen treading carefully to discuss the modalities of the census operations.
A senior home ministry official said that the government’s door-to-door campaigns and public outreach programmes are expected to temper down resistance in the coming days. The fact that the states like Kerala and West Bengal will be keen to participate in the Census exercise is evidence that the government’s welfare programmes will not get affected.
The BJP government is still hopeful that the “temporary” resistance to NPR may translate into cooperation, if certain "misconceptions" and "fears" among the people are allayed soon.
However, MHA officials said they are aware that the anti-CAA protests are continuing and that these will take some time to subside.
In the interim, the home ministry is expected to continue its confidence-building exercises with the states, which includes holding preparatory meetings with them before the census and NPR database updation. They hope this will help them allay the apprehensions expressed by some states.
The first step towards confidence building measures came on Friday when the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, in his inaugural address laid emphasis on the need for conducting Census 2021 and the “role of the States in doing the same.”
He also said that the data collected in the Census will help in framing policies for the welfare of the people. The minister also inaugurated the official “mascot” for Census 2021, MHA officials said.
According to a home ministry statement, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in his address remarked on the vastness of this exercise and involvement of the state functionaries. Dr. Vivek Joshi, Registrar General and Census Commissioner, also made a brief presentation on the Strategy for Census 2021.
Other presentations covered the appointment of the Census functionaries, National Population Register (NPR), Printing and Logistics facilities, the use of mobile application in data collection and a central monitoring portal were made by the respective in charge officials from the RGI office, said the home ministry.
Clearly, the effort on the part of the home ministry was to steer clear of the politics that were gripping the enumeration exercise.
