File photo of the 2017 census. Arif Ali—AFP
Pakistan is set to take another step toward digitization with this year’s census, paving the way for using technology in other contested areas, including ballot-counting for elections. The previous census, conducted in 2017, was based on the traditional methodology of paper-based questionnaires and was challenged in courts over allegations of miscounting.
Pakistan is late to the game, with neighboring Iran and Egypt having already successfully conducted a digital census, while Turkey is working to introduce a combined census methodology. The key question, however, is whether Pakistan is ready for a digital census, especially considering the long training process that both Iran and Turkey went through prior to introducing the technology.
The digital census—Pakistan’s seventh—is set to commence on Feb. 1 and continue till March 4, with a pilot training program of circle supervisors and enumerators having already taken place in Sialkot district. It will cover 628 tehsils comprising approximately 185,000 census blocks. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has also received the 126,000 tablets sanctioned for the digital census from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). However, concerns persist over public cooperation, especially among Pakistan’s large illiterate population.
Lawmakers maintain that the public will welcome the digital census, as happened in Iran, but the neighboring state has a much higher literacy rate than Pakistan. Another challenge is the enormous financial cost of the exercise. According to a London School of Economics study, census taking around the world faces challenges from “concerns about intrusiveness, privacy and response burden, reduced cooperation, difficulties in accessing secure apartments and enumerating unsafe areas, more complex living arrangements, and timeliness concerns.” Pakistan, specifically, also faces geographical barriers, lack of trained personnel, religious beliefs, lack of transportation and lack of communication facilities.