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CENSUS IN INDIA

Mind-boggling is the Word for It

S. Muthiah writes from Madras
What has been called " the world's greatest administrative exercise" is now underway in India. The work of the 1991 Census has Just been completed and the ground laid for the great head-count between February 9 and March 5. Training for the operation has been going on for two years.
Jn the first stage every type of, shelter was listed and numbered. Over the last nine months house-listing has been going on with numbers being given to any type of "structure that affords shelter and serves as housing for people."
Says A R Nanda. Registrar-General and Census Commissioner; "From the lowly jtnig-ghis (shanties) to tents, from boats and carts to trechouss. every type of 'home' has been
Nanda is the latest in aline that has been carrying on an operation first introduced in India by the British in 187) and which has gone on with out a miss every ten years since.
The numbered units will be grouped in blocks—200 to a block in urban areas and 250 to a block in rural areas. A group of blocks Is assigned to each enumerator.
More than 1.5 million enumerators. working with 300,000 supervisors, were selected and all went on training programmes. They were primary school teachers or junior level government officers selected for their familiarity with a particular area. its customs, habits and dialects.
The training prepares the enumerators to fill forms correctly with answers to such questions as age. gender, education and employment status.
and also sensitises them to the jiociaTrcalitics on the ground.
Nanda says: "When, for in stances, the enumerator reaches a point in his ques-’ Honing where he wants information about the women in the household, he needs to be extra careful in the Indian context that he offends no one."
"Usually In rural India. 11 is the male hpud of the family who answers all questions. And he often plays down the work done by tin- women of his household. We try to train the enumerators Io get a more accurate picture tactfully."
The trained enumerators are fanning out throughout the
country. Often they will have ; Iq,«stt :a/H^g£ two pr^three. limes before they find people' willing to provide the information.
At the same time they have to take care the same person is not counted move than once. Special arrangements have to be made to count mi-grant labour. those on holiday and religious pilgrims.
The work Is tedious and tn volvcs king hours. Questioning, recording. counting and rcchccking Is the cnumcra tor's lot. Yet the pay is paltry. The' mind-boggling census of India is called “a labour of love."
Till now the census h#s concentrated on demographies and socio-economic dale. This lime ii also seeks data on the housing and employment situation for government planners.
The first provisional results of the census will be available from mid-March 199). Just ten days after all the questionnaires are in. Tabulation and publication of provisional results and reports will begin in Ihe second half of 1991 and go on till 1995.
Thal is about the time publication of final figures begins. I’ublication of final reports will go on till It Is lime for Ihe preliminary work to begin for Census 2001 -that is. 1991.
The publication programme of the census of India is one of the biggest in Ihe world. The records'published run Into thousands. To make this date more readily available Nanda is planning to set up census services data cells to provide information al the touch of’a keyboard
For all the march of science. I he march of the million or more enumerators through slum and field, high-rise and Jungle, by lake edges and to hilltop, is the only way the date can be collected. — GEMINI NEWS
S. MUT1IIAH was a senior /ournallsl with The Times of Ceylon Jor two decades. He is now involved in printing and publishing but continues to freelance.