Countdown for India’s Biggest Headcount: First Phase in Karnataka from April 15

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Apr 13: If the People’s Republic of China is known to have the world’s largest population, India with over a billion people comes second among the comity of nations. While China is known to have started the Census operations from second century itself, India started it on a continuous basis from 1872 and is presently in the process of beginning the 2011 census -- fifteenth in the series and independent India’s seventh.

The decennial census operations being carried out all over the country will clearly be the second biggest and most systematic headcount. Within a week of the national launch of the massive exercise at Delhi on last Thursday for enumerating the country’s 1.2 billion population and classifying them according to their gender, religion, occupation and education, the first or preliminary phase of Census 2011 will be formally launched in Karnataka from April 15, Thursday.

The 15th National Census exercise, will see over 25 lakh officials capturing the socio-economic-cultural profile of its citizens. It will cost around Rs 2,209 crore while the expenditure on National Population Register (NPR) will be Rs 3,539.24 crore. The exercise will also consume more than 11 million tonnes of paper.

In the 45-day massive exercise starting in Karnataka from April 15 till June 1, as many as 1.10 lakh officials including enumerators will collect data on housing, household amenities and socio-economic-cultural profile of the people. An elaborate questionnaire involving 35 questions would have to be answered by residents.

Simultaneously, data of the National Population Register (NPR) for the preparation of registers of all usual residents of the State would be collected along with the house-listing operations, T K Anil Kumar, according to  Director, Directorate of Census Operations, Karnataka.

In Karnataka, preparation of NPR in 193 villages of the three coastal districts (193 villages)  -- Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada -- was started in September last and would be completed  at the end of April.

While the national exercise began with the listing of President Pratibha Devsingh Patil, who had appealed to the citizens to follow her example for the good of the nation, the Karnataka leg of the  exercise will commence with state Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj as the first citizen of Karnataka.

"My appeal to all brothers and sisters of the country is to wholeheartedly take part in the gigantic national tasks of Census and preparation of the first ever National Population Register. It is important for the nation as well as you,'' she said after a delegation of the Census officials visited Rashtrapati Bhavan and took down her information.

Union home minister P Chidambaram, who was also present during the listing of the President at Rashtrapathi Bhavan, had said: ``An exercise of this kind has not been attempted anywhere else in the world. This exercise must succeed and will succeed. We will leave no stone unturned to visit every village, every habitation in the country.'”

The second or the main phase of the national headcount, known as the Population Enumeration, will commence in Karnataka from February 9 to 28 next

The administrative units for 2011 census in the State comprise of 30 districts, 176 taluks, 29,340 villages, 220 statutory towns, 127 census towns and 22 urban agglomerations, Anil Kumar said.

Apart from Principal Census Officers, who are also Deputy Commissioners of districts, there would be 17,464 supervisors and 103,254 school teachers and officials of equivalent grade. Each enumerator has visit 120 to 150 houses during the 45-day long first phase exercise. A batch of six enumerators would be monitored by one supervisor. Enumerators and supervisors would be paid honorarium of Rs 5,500.

Enumerators would ask 35 questions such as house number, condition of the house, total number of residents, sex, ownership status of the house, availability of drinking water, source of drinking water, latrines within the premises, type of latrines, waste water outlet, kitchen, fuel used for cooking, radio/transistor, TV, computer/laptop, telephone, cell phone, bicycle, scooter/moped, car/jeep/van, and availability of banking services.

Data would also be collected for preparation of the first-ever NPR along with the house-listing schedule from April 15 to June 1.  Fifteen questions to be asked for preparation of NPR, which would include name of person, relationship to head, father’s name, mother’s name, spouse’s house, sex, date of birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality as declared, present address of usual residence, duration of stay at present address, permanent residential address, occupation/activity and education qualification.

Photographs and finger prints will be collected later for persons aged 15 years and above to create a biometric national database, which would help India to become probably become the first democratic nation in the world which would have got its population fingerprinted in a year from now.

However, the Government has already made it clear that no information will be collected on castes as no caste-based census has ever been conducted in independent India.