In the latest move in the process of digitization, the authorities have decided to hold the sixth “Population and Housing Census 2022” across the country in a digital manner. For a nation with as high ambitions as ours, this has been a long time coming.
The data collection commenced on Wednesday under the supervision of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, and such collection will continue until the 21st of this month. Statistical data is an important factor when it comes to formulating both long-term and short-term goals, and for a country as densely populated as Bangladesh, having a proper insight into the population becomes that much more important.
We are on the verge of experiencing a demographic dividend. With the commencement of the Padma Bridge, the long-slated decentralization plans finally have a chance to commence. We are already looking at the connectivity and other infrastructural issues in the country, and by 2041, we aim to digitize almost every aspect of the country, including its services. These are very lofty goals we have and to achieve them, we need intricate and properly fine-tuned plans.
Of course, a plan is only as good as the information that goes into building it, and to do that, the raw data needs to be perfect. To reiterate, data collection is a sector that we have always lacked behind in, and is especially important for a country that is about to graduate from its LDC status.
Digitization should mitigate a lot of the issues that are associated with manual data collection, but we need to do things properly. Since this is the first time we are engaging in such an undertaking, some sort of statistical error is normal. But for both the sake of the present and the future, it is imperative that we do this as properly as humanly possible.
Again, kudos to the authorities for taking such a measure. Hopefully, this will pave the way for the digitization of other services, and will fine tune and revamp our fairly lacking existing data collection model and the beginning of a long and fruitful process that will pay solid dividends in the long run.
