By Zainab Ali
ISLAMABAD: New digital census would begin across the country on Wednesday (tomorrow). According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, a digital portal was launched on February 20, where the people could submit their data. So far 4.3m people had registered themselves.
The self-enumeration phase has started on February 20 while the field operation of the census will start across the country from March 1 (Wednesday). The process will be completed by April 1 this year and the data will be released by 30th April.
The digital census is being carried out mainly by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The Bureau has the support of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), National Technology Council (NTC), provincial governments as well as the armed forces.
As many as 121,000 field enumerators had been trained and deployed for field operation while each enumerator would be guarded by a police officer and supported by the armed forces. As many as 495 Census Support Centres have been set up across the country for the purpose, while 126,000 electronic devices will be used in the process.
Digital Census to cost Rs34 billion
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the government had formed a committee under the deputy chairman Planning Commission for chalking out the procedure. The 7th census is the first-ever digital one not only in Pakistan but also in the South Asia. The gathered data will be authentic as per the international standards and will be used for constituency delimitation in the general elections as well as for public policy planning. The total expenditures in the exercise had been estimated at Rs34 billion.
The work has started with the approval of all the four provinces as well as the Council of Common Interests. The participants of the CCI had no objection to the methodology of the census process, according to the officials.
