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Inaugurating a recent Data Users Conference for Census 2011, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the census organisation must try and release the scheduled 2011 census data within two or three years from its date of completion
India’s 2011 census may be a lot quicker coming, with the government aiming to reduce the gap between completion of the census and the release of data, from the present four to five years to two or three years in the near future. The census will also present a more accurate demographic picture of the country by enumerating temporary migrants at their usual residence, rather than actual residence at the time of the count. Inaugurating the Data Users Conference for Census 2011, that began in New Delhi on April 24, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the census organisation must endeavour to release the scheduled 2011 census data within two or three years from its date of completion. “Results of the 2001 census were released in less than five years, as against eight years in the 1991 census,” he said while stressing the need to use technology at every possible stage of the census. Referring to the recent delimitation exercise in the country, when doubts were raised over the accuracy of the population count taken in the 2001 census in certain states, Patil attributed the mismatch between the census count and actual population on the census methodology. “The census in the country is conducted using the de-facto method and not the de-jure method. As a result, populations are counted wherever they are found to be living during the three weeks of census-taking… but with increasing mobility, this approach has a limitation of giving a lower count in the state, district and area from where the population may have migrated…” Even as the minister called for a method that allocates temporary migrants to the state, district or area where they belong, the census authorities -- the Registrar General of India (RGI) -- have proposed a combination of the de-facto and de-jure methods for the 2011 census, wherein temporary migrants will be counted at their usual residence, defined as households where they have stayed for the most part of the 12 months preceding the enumeration period. With the country’s population expected to touch 1.20 billion by 2011, it will take over 2 million enumerators to conduct the upcoming exercise, to be spread over a period of four weeks from February 2-28, 2011, followed by a revision round from March 1-5. Patil said the 2011 census would be a challenge because the government was contemplating using the opportunity to dovetail the preparation of a National Population Register (NPR) with it. Data in the NPR will have specified characteristics of each individual along with a photograph and finger biometrics that will be put in subsequent to the census, he said, adding that the government was planning to set up an authority to handle and manage the database. The minister also said the creation of the NPR would usher in an era of register-based census. It would help, in future, to have population estimates on a real-time basis by combining it with the system of registration of births and deaths. Minister of State for Home Dr Shakeel Ahmed noted that for the 2011 census, a database of village boundary/location for each sub-district had been digitally prepared; for towns, the census organisation would prepare a digital geographic database with support from Survey of India. He mentioned that a group under the RGI was examining standardising the country’s name and address system. Once in place, this will help reduce omission rates in the census. The RGI, while releasing three sets of data for the 2001 census at the conference, observed that not only was the marriage age well over the legal age, averaging 22.6 years for males and 18.3 years for females, life expectancy was also up by 0.3 years. As for work participation rates, the overall figure was 39.1 (51.7 for males and 25.6 for females), with only 3.5% of people in the age-group 15-34 found to be not working. Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said the 2001 census exercise had cost Rs 1,403 crore; that’s Rs 14 per person. The two-day conference is being attended by representatives of both central and state governments and their affiliated bodies, a number of national-level institutes and universities, eminent demographers and population experts who are prime users of the census data for planning and research. Source: The Hindu, April 25, 2008
The Economic Times, April 25, 2008
Press Information Bureau, April 24, 2008
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