NEW DELHI: For the first time, the decennial Census exercise is likely to collect data on bank accounts per household as well as penetration of insurance services in India. The Census 2021 questionnaire , which is currently being finalised in consultation with various central ministries and departments, will also seek to widen the scope of questions relating to sanitation, seeking responses on kind of toilets in a household rather than just the presence of toilets.

Sources in the home ministry told TOI that as part of ongoing consultation for designing the questionnaire for houselisting/enumeration for next census, the finance ministry has sought to refine the 2011 question of whether there was a bank account held within the household, to how many bank accounts are held by members of the household.

Another important information that the finance ministry wants collected is insurance policy taken by a household.

“The questionnaire is being redesigned to widen the scope of information being collected so that it can be applied to improve the delivery of various government schemes. The responses will be further codified so that collation of data is faster. We are looking at releasing complete data within three years of conducting the census,” said a home ministry functionary.

The drinking water and sanitation ministry has suggested reframing of the question on toilets in a household to seek exactly the kind of toilets in use — twin-pit, Indian or Western style.

Census 2021 will also use maps/georeferencing for houselisting. This will ensure standardised and digitised maps of enumeration blocks, rather than the hand-made maps used thus far.

