Minister of State Home Affairs Nityanand Rai on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that the forthcoming Census will be the first-ever digital Census in the country.

In a written reply to the question of BJP MP Roopa Ganguly, Rai said that the forthcoming Census is to be the first digital Census and there is a provision for self-enumeration. A mobile app for the collection of data and a Census portal for management and monitoring of various Census-related activities has been developed.

He informed the House that Census 2021 and other Census-related field activities have been postponed until further orders due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In March, the Centre announced that it has decided to conduct Census 2021 in two phases -- the Houselisting and Housing Census during April-September 2020 and the Population Enumeration during February 9 to 28, 2021.