Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the launch of stalled Census-2021 to facilitate public policy making according to the socio-economic needs of the society.
The census has been the basis of policy designs for the last 150 years in India with the government of India conducting a census every ten years. The statistics derived from the results of the census provide information about socio-economic and cultural changes in the country, said Chief Minister Baghel in his letter.
However, the census which was to be held in 2021 was stalled following the global spread of deadly COVID-19 pandemic during the last three years, he wrote further.
Baghel further said that socio-economic and caste surveys were also conducted during the last census in 2011. It was on the basis of the census various government schemes were framed. As a result of several government schemes, a lot of socio-economic changes may have taken place in the last decade but we don’t have authentic data available about the changes in society, he added.
Advocating a new survey to be started at the earliest to identify the deprived and eligible beneficiaries, Baghel urged the PM that the survey should find out the details of deprived sections who have benefited from different government schemes. Baghel requested that the Prime Minister should instruct the authorities to begin the already delayed census in the interests of the poor.

Advertisement