Census key towards better child welfare planning, say experts

Lucknow: Stressing the importance of accurate child data for policymaking and welfare planning, Regional Directorate of Census Operations and Unicef on Friday urged stakeholders to help digitally disadvantaged families complete self-enumeration for Census 2027.The appeal was made during an interactive session titled “Census Matters for Children” held at the Unicef office in Lucknow.Conducted in hybrid mode, the programme brought together civil society groups, youth networks, media representatives and govt officials to spread awareness about India’s first fully digital census.Chief principal census officer, Sheetal Verma, said self-enumeration is a major innovation in Census 2027 and would improve data accuracy while reducing chances of exclusion, especially of children.Citizens can complete the process online through the self-enumeration portal between May 7 and May 21 in Uttar Pradesh before the houselisting phase begins.Unicef UP chief, Zakari Adam, said census remains the most comprehensive source of data on children and is crucial for planning development interventions and resource allocation.Officials said accurate and disaggregated census data would help govts make targeted investments in healthcare, nutrition, education and child welfare schemes.Participants were encouraged to assist at least three digitally disadvantaged families in completing self-enumeration to ensure that no household or child was left uncounted.Nearly 2.7 lakh online self-enumeration on Day 2Uttar Pradesh logged over 2.7 lakh self-enumeration online by 6 pm on Friday, the second day of the process, with Sonbhadra district leading with over 60,000 applicants, followed by Auraiya and Lucknow.