The Census in Pakistan is a decennial census and a descriptive count of Pakistan’s population on Census Day, and of their dwellings, conducted and supervised by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The 2017 Census in Pakistan marked the first census to take place in Pakistan since 1998. The current census will be the first digital census of its kind.
THE country is taking a big step forward in the enumeration of its human resources after the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics decided to have a ‘digital census’ of the population from 01 March 2023 to 01 April 2023. The new system is to be synchronized with GPS and geographical Centre Services and technical support centers at each tehsil level and data displayed on an online web portal.
In the words of Nadra Chairman Tariq Malik, the exercise will evolve “From scribbled responses on millions of paper sheets to real-time validated data in apps on secure devices with satellite imagery”.
It is believed that this transformation will make the massive exercise of counting more than 200m citizens not just quicker and more efficient but also much more precise. With detailed data made digitally available with the PBS, Pakistani authorities and policymakers will have, as Mr Malik has described it, “a foundational system for evidence-based policymaking.”
The most important benefit of the use of modern technology is transparency in proper documentation of the population, on which are based on three vital policy decisions: resource distribution by the National Finance Commission; the number of seats in the national and provincial assemblies; and provision of social services within the provinces. Digitalization should also resolve the nagging problem caused in many cases by registration of people both on the permanent and present addresses.
GPS data could be used to implement very targeted lockdowns, for example, while GIS data will come in handy when understanding the impact of a calamity, like the floods seen this year, and devising the most efficient solutions for emergency response. Even the traditional use of census data — for example, in conducting delimitation exercises and allocating seats in parliament — will be massively transformed as important decisions such as how to mark constituencies could be taken at a granular level rather than on guesstimates and assumptions alone.
It is really unfortunate that our past census figures have always been disputed so this time technology based census will bury the past mistakes and it may be a good idea to involve the representation of political parties to keep it transparent and they do not have any objections to the census results. This could also help in the future election to keep them fair with scientifically collected, accurate data. This digital census will also end the debate of population of largest city of Pakistan- Karachi which most of the international organizations and demographers were projecting Karachi, to have a population between 17 Million and 25 Million prior to the census of 2017, but when the results of the census came, they showed Karachi’s population standing at 14.9 Million. This made results controversial as many major Sindhi political parties, namely the Pakistan People’s Party, Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, and other refusing to accept the final results
It will be a major responsibility for PBS and Nadra to ensure that the census data collected stays secure and is used sensibly.