NGOs to be involved in India's 2011 census

For the first time in India, non-government organisations (NGOs) will be involved in carrying out the country's gigantic 2011 census operation, officials said on Saturday. "Besides senior officials, renowned personalities from among the NGOs have been selected as national trainers in each state to provide training to other officials to conduct the enumeration of the census," senior census official Dilip Acherjee told reporters. He said: "In the first phase of census 2011, data collection for creation of the first ever computerised National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), along with house listing and housing census would be taken up April 26 this year." The 45-day work would be completed June 9 tentatively though the dates are likely to vary from state to state. Ahead of the first phase of census, central Home Minister P. Chidambaram would hold a meeting with district magistrates and census officials across the country March 4 in New Delhi to finalise the road map on creation of NRIC. "The coastal states of India have already begun the work on NRIC," the official added. "These very critical and basic statistics of the NRIC would form the database of every Indian and these would be maintained by the Unique Identification of India (UID), a proposed system to be used as a means of uniquely identifying the residents in the country." Acherjee said that the actual population enumeration would be undertaken simultaneously across the country from Feb 9 to Feb 28, 2011 followed by a five-day revision round from March 1-5, 2011. The preliminary census result would be declared March 25, 2011. To conduct the census operation, several thousand enumerators, supervisors and census officers will be appointed across the country soon.

To conduct the census operation, several thousand enumerators, supervisors and census officers will be appointed across the country soon. District magistrates and collectors would be principal census officers (PCO) of the concerned district while sub-divisional magistrates and block development officers would be the sub-divisional census officers and charge census officers respectively. "The Indian census has a rich tradition and enjoys the reputation of being one of the best in the world. The first census in India was conducted in 1872 with a diverse schedule and separately in different regions. In 1981, a census was taken for the entire country simultaneously." Acherjee said: "The 2011 census would be the 15th census since 1872 and the seventh census after India's independence." For the first time, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would also help to create master trainers, who would educate the enumerators and supervisors to conducted the massive census operation.

No data since 1931, will 2011 Census be all-caste inclusive?

Should India, after a lapse of 80 years, not revive the practice of collecting data on all castes in the ensuing 2011 Census? The proposal of collecting caste-wise data beyond SCs and STs has been made in order to provide similar empirical support to quotas for OBCs in government jobs and educational institutions.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Telugu Desam leader and former Union cabinet minister K Yerrannaidu said that opposition to OBC census often came from the very people opposing reservations. "They would first not let you count OBCs in the census and then cite absence of latest of latest census data as ground to oppose quota for OBCs," Yerrannaidu said.

Describing the present census arrangement as a "double-tongued logjam", he said "OBCs are not responsible for the decision to abolish caste wise census and therefore cannot be sufferers for the absence of such data since 1931."

Since NSSO, an organization run by the Ministry of Statistics, already conducted a sample survey of OBCs to make an estimate of unemployment among them, Yerrannaidu asserted that there could not be any reason for rejecting their demand for caste-wise census.

Brushing aside the apprehension that conducting caste-wise enumeration would trigger casteism, he said, "Non-collection of caste data since Independence has not transformed the Indian society into a casteless one nor had it reduced the practice of caste system." Yerrannaidu pointed out that even the Supreme Court had, in the context of the 2007 legislation extending OBC quota to educational institutions, conceded the need for caste wise census.

The court said, "There is no doubt and in fact it was fairly accepted by additional solicitor general that there is need for periodic identification of the backward citizens and for this purpose the need for survey of entire population on the basis of acceptable mechanism. What might have been relevant in 1931census may have some relevance but cannot be the determinative factor."