Census 2011 begins in Bhatkal

Bhatkal - 09 Feb 2011: Census 2011 kicked off today in Bhatkal from the house of Bhatkal MLA Mr J.D. Naik and TMC President Mr Inayatullah Shabandri. In this census, information about the population of the city and work on population enumeration will be carried out and it would continue till February 28.

For the first time, data for the third gender would be collected.

T.K. Anil Kumar, Director of Census Operations, Karnataka, told presspersons here on Monday that on February 28, the houseless population would be enumerated. A "revisional" round would be carried out from March 1 to 5.

A total of 1,03,523 enumerators would go door to door and collect information and data . Enumerators, primarily teachers and government officials, would cover 29,340 villages in 176 taluks of 30 districts.

He clarified that the information collected about individuals would be kept confidential. There would be a column on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, he said.

It is stated that the Union Government has decided to hold caste-based enumeration as a separate exercise from June to September 2011.

In the first phase of house-listing from April to May last year details about buildings and houses, and amenities available as well as the assets owned were collected and systematically listed.

Mr. Kumar said all enumerators had been given identity cards. For the first time, bar codes and form numbers had been introduced for easy identification and retrieval of forms. The codes of recording types of disability had been increased from five in 2001 to eight codes to cover more types of disability and also multiple disabilities.

The marginal worker has been classified into two categories - if worked for three months or more but less than six months, and if worked for less than three months, the director said.

More emphasis was laid on training classes for collecting accurately the responses to questions related to gender issues to make the Census 2011 gender responsive. A district specific data sheet on key gender statistics had been provided to all census functionaries, he said.

The firstcensus of Indiawas conducted in 1872 and since then, this is the 15th census of the country, but after independence, this is the country's seventh census.

Bhatkallys News Bureau / The Hindu