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16-August-2011
Indian Census is the single largest source of a
variety of statistical information on different
characteristics of the people of India. It is the
most credible source of information on demography,
economic activity, literacy and education, housing &
household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and
mortality, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes,
language, religion, migration, disability and many
other socio-cultural and demographic data.
With a history of more than 130 years, this
reliable, time tested exercise has been bringing out
a veritable wealth of statistics every 10 years,
beginning from 1872 when the first census was
conducted in India non-synchronously in different
parts.
The recently concluded Census 2011 is the 15th
National Census of the Country in the unbroken
series since 1872 and the seventh after
Independence. It is remarkable that the great
historical tradition of conducting a Census has been
maintained in spite of several adversities like
wars, epidemics, natural calamities, political
unrest etc. Very few countries in the world can
boast of such a glorious tradition.
The responsibility of conducting the decennial
Census rests with the Office of the Registrar
General and Census Commissioner, India (ORGI) under
the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India,
which includes conceptualization, planning and
implementation of the Census operation in the
country. The organization has field offices in all
the States and Union Territories (except the Union
Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and the Union
Territory of Daman and Diu, which are attached to
the office at Gujarat). The field officers are
headed by the Directors of Census Operations, who
are responsible for the conduct of Census in their
respective jurisdictions.
Methodology
The Census of India is conducted once in a decade,
following an extended de facto canvasser method.
Under this approach, data is collected on every
individual by visiting the household and canvassing
a single questionnaire over a period of three weeks.
The count is then updated to the reference date and
time by conducting a Revision Round. In the Revision
Round, any changes in the entries that arise on
account of births, deaths and migration between the
time of the enumerators visit and the reference
date/time are noted down and the record updated.
Census 2011 has been conducted in two phases. In the
first phase, known as Houselisting and Housing
Census, each building, house and other structures
were systematically listed and numbered. Besides,
useful information on use of the house, amenities
available to the households, if residential, and
assets owned by them was collected. This exercise,
held between April to September, 2010 in different
States/Union territories was used to draw up a frame
for the second phase of Census 2011, known as
Population Enumeration held in February 2011.
In the second phase, the Population Enumeration
exercise was held throughout the country from 9th to
28th February 2011. During this period, about 2.7
million Enumerators visited about 240 million
households collecting information on every person
living in these households. On the night of 28th
February, 2011 the Houseless population was
enumerated. Thereafter, a Revision Round was
conducted to update the population with reference to
the Census Moment, i.e., 00:00 hours of 1st March,
2011 by updating information on births and deaths
occurring in the households.
Innovations Adopted
India had witnessed unparalleled change in terms of
growth in population, economic development and
adoption of new technology, particularly in the
filed of Information Technology in comparison to the
previous decades. This offered an opportunity to
reassess each stage of census taking and modify the
procedures taking into account the availability of
resources and their optimum utilization. From
planning to execution of the Census Operation,
innovation was the key word. The objective was to
ensure full coverage of the area and the population
without omission or overlapping, collection of
quality data without any prejudice and bias and to
quickly process the data to make it available in the
public domain for use before it becomes obsolete.
Following are some of the steps taken in this
direction:
Complete and Unduplicated Coverage of
Population-While undertaking census operation, a key
aspect is to ensure complete coverage of the
geographic area of the country without any omission
or duplication. This requires the updating of
jurisdictional boundaries of all the administrative
units from States to the Villages/Towns. Towards
this end for use in Census 2011, information on
changes in the jurisdiction of the administrative
boundaries of 35 States/Union Territories, 640
districts, 5,924 sub-districts, 7,935 towns and
6,40,867 villages were meticulously collected along
with official notifications and maps. Each of these
changes was recorded in the digitized maps using
latest GIS software. In addition, the Census
Organization has completed preparation of detailed
digital maps of 33 capital cities of the country
based on satellite imagery. These maps show detailed
layout of buildings, houses, other structures, road
network and important landmarks and were used in
Census 2011.
Quality of Content
Designing the Census Schedules- Two types of
Questionnaire, known in Census as Schedules, are
canvassed for the two phases of Census. In Census
2011, the work of designing the Schedules was
entrusted to the National Institute of Design,
Ahmedabad which came up with brilliant designs,
which were easy to use, aesthetically developed,
easy to scan and comparable to the best in the
world. The Schedules had several unique features
like Bar Code, Unique Form Number and drop-out color
from a standard palette. All these helped in
collecting quality information and better inventory
management, a nightmare in the past. These features
have greatly enhanced the processing of data.
Training- One of the most critical elements in
Census is the training of the field Enumerators who
collect information. Unless the 2.7 million
functionaries are clear about the concepts and
methodology, the quality of data collected will
suffer. For the first time support of the NGOs was
taken in imparting training in local languages. In
Census 2011, a three-tier training hierarchy was put
in place with National Trainers (90 in number) at
the country level, Master Trainers Facilitators
(725) at the State level and Master Trainers
(54,000) at the District level. It was the
responsibility of the Master Trainers to train 2.7
million Enumerators/ Supervisors at the grass-root
level, a ratio of just 50 Enumerators per Master
Trainer. The Instruction Manual was substantially
improved by incorporating suitable illustrations and
examples. In addition, Training Guides showing
minute to minute agenda was prepared for use by the
trainers at each stage of training. The Guide not
only focused on elaborating concepts and methodology
in Census but also covered such aspects as
communication, rapport building etc. One important
addition to the basket of training aids was the
introduction of e-Learning modules on important
census concepts, where animation characters
representing Enumerators and Respondent(s) were
shown actually delivering the dialogues and asking
questions.
Publicity Campaign in Census 2011- For any large
scale operations like Census Operations to succeed,
undertaking adequate publicity campaign is an
important element. Adequate sensitization of the
people is a pre-requisite, as Census aims to collect
personal information on each individual residing in
the country at the time of Census. It is also
important to focus on proper enumeration of such
critical aspects as gender and disability in the
population. In absence of adequate in-house
expertise, the work of devising the entire campaign
was assigned to reputed advertising agencies in the
country with support from the UN Agencies. Elaborate
campaign was planned and executed by using mass
media, public outreach and digital media to achieve
the objectives. The basic modules in Hindi were
translated in 12 languages for use in different
parts of the country. The media plan was prepared
using the latest reports available on reach of media
in different parts of the country using different
modes on a scientific basis.
Census in School Programme- To sensitize school
students about the Census 2011, an innovative
programme was introduced throughout the country,
where specially prepared and attractively designed
School Kits were sent to about 60 to 80 schools in
each of the 593 districts in the country. Each
School Kit contained a letter from the Census
Commissioner, India to the Principals of these
schools requesting them to sensitize the students
about the ensuing Census 2011 and also about the
importance and utility of Census. Special attention
was paid to the students of Class VI, VII and VIII
for whom special lessons were sent on different
subjects. The Census Commissioner, India also
requested the Principals to designate one week in
January 2011 as Census Week to develop awareness
about Census 2011.
Gender Sensitization- Even though gender had been a
prominent cross-cutting priority in 2001 Census,
data related to female count, marital status, female
headed households, female disability and female
work-participation has continued to suffer from
undercount or under-reporting. The 2001 census
enumerated several villages/ districts that had
reported very few women, very low female literacy
and no female worker. To ensure collection of
accurate information, an attempt was made to
integrate gender issues into various stages of
census taking by identifying gender critical
districts, which had low sex ratio (less than 900);
low female literacy (less than 30%) or low female
work participation rate (less than 20%) on the basis
of 2001 Census. In this way 262 Critical Districts
were identified for focused attention and training.
Special steps were taken to appoint additional
Master Trainer Facilitators to sensitize the
Enumerators on gender issues and train them in
collecting authentic information. Special Data
Sheets and Posters were prepared and displayed at
each training class to sensitize the Enumerators on
the poor status of women with reference to these
three critical indicators. Extra effort was also
made during the publicity campaign to sensitize the
people to provide correct information about women
and the girl child at the time of enumeration.
Using Social Networking Websites-With the
overwhelming popularity of the social networking
sites among the youth today, for the first time, in
Census 2011, a conscious effort was made to reach
them directly. Census 2011 Group was created on
Facebook and Twitter in the first week of February
2011 and regular posts were made initially informing
the visitors about different facets of Census in
general and Census 2011 in particular inviting their
support in spreading the message on Census. Within a
short time, a large number of persons, mostly from
the younger sections of the population, became
members and actively posted views on the wall. The
experience was quite satisfactory as most of the
posts complimented the efforts while a few pointing
out about not being covered in Census 2011.
Immediate action was taken to redress their
grievances. The site was also used for disseminating
information on Census 2011 extensively. At present,
there are more than 20,000 members on this Group.
Similarly on Twitter as well, the members welcomed
the new initiative. The Census Commissioner, India
was awarded Exceptional Achievement for innovative
use of social media in the country’s biggest
governance exercise.
Community Volunteers- This was a unique initiative
in some North Eastern States where Civil Society
Organisations joined hands with the Directorates to
not only spread awareness but actually take part in
the conduct of the Census. This has had a
significant impact in these States and has greatly
enhanced the participation of the general people in
the Census.
Time bound completion of field operations and
timely release of data.
Using State of the Art data recognition technology
in data capture and data processing- The Census
Office has always been in the forefront in the
adoption of the latest data processing technology in
the processing of census data. At 2001 Census, for
the first time, a major technology change in the
vital activity of data extraction recorded on the
Census Schedule and creating associated computer
data files was introduced, so as to fully
computerize the subsequent data processing
activities in generating output tables for use.
India was the only large country in the world to
have used this technology in 2001 Census. In the new
technology used, the Census Schedules were scanned
using high speed duplex scanners and information
read using ICR technology. When the Census Office
adopted this technology in India, it was considered
a risk by many as the technology had been used only
by a few small countries and not tested for a large
country. This innovation by the Indian Census not
only saved time and money but allowed accurate
capture of data as well. Another major benefit in
adopting this technology was that it allowed the
Census to tabulate the entire data on a 100% basis
rather than on a sample basis as was the case till
1991 Census. Using the ICR technology not only saved
time for data capture and data tabulation thus
ultimately making it available to the users early,
but also was very cost effective saving public
money.
Despatch and delivery of Census material-In Census
2011, approximately 340 million Census Schedules, 6
million Instruction Manuals, and other printed
materials in 18 languages were used. The despatch
and delivery of these Census materials weighing
about 2000 metric tons, printed in the right
language(s) from about twenty printing presses
located in different parts of the country and
delivering them to about 17,000 locations in each
tehsil in the country was a logistic nightmare.
After the operations, the filled-in Schedules were
to be collected and delivered to the 17 Data
Scanning Centres and the 33 Census Offices. This job
of collection, delivery and return collection was
given to Indian Posts which used their Logistic Post
Service to deliver the material in each tehsil in
the country, safely and securely and in time. With
their expert services, the India Posts were able to
complete the work in time satisfactorily.
Public Grievances and Monitoring-A Call Centre was
set up to receive complaints from the public on
various issues relating to Population Enumeration.
Located in Pune, the facility was extended in 14
languages throughout the country. The complaints on
non-coverage and other issues were quickly resolved
with support from the local Census Offices. The Call
Centers facility was also used to monitor the
progress of enumeration work by directly contacting
the Supervisions. At the conclusion of the
Population Enumeration exercise, they have been
assigned the job of Post Enumeration Survey (PES) in
four metro cities.
Outsourcing of non-critical activities-Undertaking
the Census Operation requires planning and execution
of a wide array of activities, some demanding
serious application of mind and some simply
involving logistics and infrastructure. The scale of
operations in all cases, however, was gigantic, due
to the geographic spread and absence of adequate
infrastructure in the country. It was decided at the
planning stage itself to outsource non-critical
activities in Census 2011 to allow Census Officials
to focus more on Census related activities than
managing logistics.
Adoption of Green Technology.
Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India
supervised and monitored the progress of the Census
Operations through video conferences with all the
640 District Collectors every week. The video
conferencing technology saved huge amount of money
which otherwise would have been necessary if the
supervision team practically travelled to all the
places or issued instructions through letters or
correspondences.
Availing Call Centre facility to address public
grievances during census helped in spreading green
technology.
Cost
The cost of Census taking in such a large country as
India is enormous. In Census 2011, about Rs 2200
crore was spent from the Central Budget during the
two phases of Census, i.e., Houselisting and Housing
Census held from April to September 2010 and the
Population Enumeration held in February 2011. The
amount spent was quite low as compared to the world
average. According to the 25th Population Conference
organized by the UN Statistical Division held in
Seoul this year, the average cost of Census taking
in the world is estimated as $ 4.6 per person. In
India, the cost was less than $ 0.5 per person in
Census 2011.
The heroines and heroes of Census 2011 have
undoubtedly been the 2.7 million enumerators and
supervisors who have spared no efforts to complete
the arduous task in time. Three weeks to cover a
vast and diverse country like India – a task looked
at with awe by the world, but accomplished by these
humble women and men with sincerity and devotion to
duty. The Nation is proud of them and we salute each
one of them for their hard work, perseverance and
patience. (PIB Features)
*Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India
RTS/VN
SS-135/SF-135/16.08.2011
PIB
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