In a first, Census 2011 to mark people with multiple disability

For the first time in India, people with multiple disability will be a part of Census 2011. The census will not only include the number of people in each disabled category but also recognise diseases like dyslexia and autism as forms of disability.
Disability, which was included in various census in different forms but discontinued in 1991, was reintroduced in 2001. However, Census 2001 was confined to disability in vision, speech, audio, movement and mental. Census 2011, however, will include people with two or more disabilities — speech and audio; vision and audio; impairments like movement will be combined with vision or audio or speech or others; mental retardation or illness with vision or audio or others; or difficulty in movement, speech, audio or loss of memory due to old age. Along with recognising a person with multiple disorders, the enumerators will also mark the type of disabilities the person is facing.

Punjab HC dismisses plea to know Sonia's religion recorded in Census 2001

A division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the petition filed by former director general of police of Haryana, P C Wadhwa, on whether the Registrar General, Census Operations, is bound to provide details of the religion and faith of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her children under the Act.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the plea and ruled the information demanded on the religion of an individual is entirely personal.
"It is evident that the petitioner is making efforts to make unjustified inroads into the privacy of the individuals even if they are public figure and consequently the information cannot be made public," the division Bench ruled.
This is being considered a landmark judgment on the right to privacy of Indian citizens and whether private information such as religion and belief of an individual can be provided to anybody under the Right to Information Act (RTI).

चीन में शुरू हुई विश्व की सबसे बड़ी जनगणना

सर्वाधिक आबादी वाले देश चीन ने अपने एक दशक पुराने जनसंख्या आंकड़े को अपडेट करने के लिए सोमवार को विश्व की सबसे बड़ी जनगणना की शुरुआत की।

जनगणना कार्यक्रम के तहत करीब साढ़े छह लाख कार्यकर्ता अगले 10 दिनों में देश के विभिन्न क्षेत्रों में स्थित करीब 40 करोड़ से अधिक घरों में जाएंगे।ये कार्यकर्ता इस दौरान देश के नागरिकों के अलावा विदेशी नागरिकों के घरों में भी जाकर विभिन्न जानकारियां एकत्र करेंगे।

राष्ट्रीय सांख्यिकी ब्यूरो (एनबीएस) के अधिकारियों ने बताया कि ज्यादा सटीक आंकड़ों के लिए जनगणना का दूसरा दौर 11 नवंबर से शुरू किया जाएगा, जो 30 नवंबर तक चलेगा।उन्होंने बताया कि सभी आंकड़ों की गणना दिसंबर में की जाएगी और इसके परिणाम अप्रैल, 2011 में जारी होंगे।

संभावना है कि इस जनगणना से चीन के नागरिकों का आयु संबंधी खाका उपलब्ध हो सकेगा। चीन में एक बच्चे की नीति को सख्ती से लागू किया जा रहा है, जिससे देश में बुजुर्गों की संख्या में तेजी से वृद्धि हो रही है और पेंशन कोष पर भारी दबाव पड़ रहा है

।एनबीएस के अनुसार, 1 नवंबर से पहले जन्म लेने वालों को इस जनगणना में शामिल कर लिया जाएगा, जबकि इसके बाद जन्म लेने वालों को अगली जनगणना में शामिल किया जाएगा, जो वर्ष 2020 में होनी है।जनगणना के लिए, करीब 90 प्रतिशत लोगों को एक प्रपत्र भरने के लिए कहा जाएगा, जिसमें उन्हें करीब 18 जानकारियां देनी होंगी। इसमें नाम, लिंग, प्रजाति, घर का पंजीकरण नंबर और शिक्षा आदि के बारे में जानकारियां देनी होंगी।

Census 2011 counts on gender sensitisation

In Census 2011, special focus will be given to enumeration of women, their literacy and participation in works — either in domestic or vocational capacity.
On the basis of the Census 2001 data, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India office has identified 262 gender critical districts or cities with million-plus population in 26 states, where women work participation was less than 20 per cent or female literacy rate was less than 30 per cent or sex ratio was less than 900.
Maximum number of gender critical districts or cities have been identified in Uttar Pradesh (60), followed by Bihar (28), Haryana (18), Orissa (17), Punjab (16), Madhya Pradesh (16), Rajasthan (15), Assam (12), Delhi (9), Jammu & Kashmir (9), Kerala (9), Jharkhand (8) and Arunachal Pradesh (7) among others.
In Uttar Pradesh, about 50 districts and cities have been identified as gender critical because here sex ratio is less than 900. Moreover, while in 10 districts, the female literacy rate is less than 30 per cent, in 41 districts, women work participation is less than 20 per cent.
In several surveys and past census, it has been noticed that people — particularly in rural areas — ignore infants, children and elderly women, while giving details about family composition and work profile during enumeration. “To ensure an accurate enumeration of women in Census 2011, special attention is being given to gender sensitisation among the public and enumerators,” said Neena Sharma, Director of Census Operations in Uttar Pradesh.
According to officials, in some gender critical districts, women work participation is either very low or nil. But in jobs like “cow milching”, almost every woman in rural areas is engaged. But due to the ignorance of either the respondent or the enumerator, women engaged in such works are left out. In the ongoing Census, every woman engaged in such works will be counted.
“To achieve this objective, it is critical to enhance the skills of enumerators to accurately collect information, which sometimes the respondent is reluctant to share — especially concerning women members of the household. This usually includes information on infants, young and elderly, divorced and separated woman,” said an official.
This time, experts from UNICEF are training master trainer facilitators. Gender master trainer facilitators will be deployed in gender critical districts to train the master trainers about gender sensitisation and ways to quiz the respondents about women members in a family.
“The UNICEF has already provided the training module. In UP, training may begin by November-end,” said Sharma. Enumerators will trained to collect accurate information through cross-questioning respondents during the second phase of enumeration scheduled in February 2011.

Caste enumeration to start in June 2011 in Tamil Nadu

The Centre has informed Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi that caste enumeration would start in June next and completed in a phased manner by September 2011.
"The enumeration of all castes will start from June 2011 and will be completed in a phased manner by September 2011 keeping in view the schedule of the general elections to be held in four states including Tamil Nadu," Union home minister P Chidambaram has said.
In a letter to Karunanidhi dated October 29, Chidambaram has said the Union cabinet on September 9 had approved the group of ministers' recommendation on carrying out a caste census.
Chidambaram was responding to a letter written by Karunanidhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August, seeking to incorporate caste details in the ongoing census process.

Caste Census should go beyond numbers: Justice Sadashiva

Even as the Caste Census has about to begun, Justice A J Sadashiva, who is heading a commission looking into imbalance in distribution of reservation benefits, asked the officials not to restrict the exercise to generation of data alone. The survey should help map the social, economic and cultural status of the communities, which, he said, should help the government to assist them. This should not be a mere exercise to get the data but it should also map the living conditions of the targeted communities, he told them reviewing the survey work in Mysore, Chamarajnagar, Mandya and Hassan districts. Regional commissioner M V Jayanthi was present.

Pointing out the task, Sadashiva referred to the proposed caste census by the the Centre and said: "What the commission is doing is important in that context. It should set a vast guideline for the national caste census." There is not much information about some communities. This needs to be documented and the survey should not be a mere statistical affair, he noted. Pointing at the ZP polls in December, some officials sought extension of the survey works ordained to be completed by November-end, Sadashiva said he cannot outrightly say that it will be granted. Officials said the number of enumerators is less in some areas and the commission suggested to use the local resources to make it up. The DCs, ACs and tahasldars from all four districts attended the meeting.

Second phase of census to begin in February

Agartala: The training of enumerators and supervisors for the second phase of the 2011 Census -- to be held in February next year -- shall commence next month, an official said here.
'The second phase of census 2011, called the Population Enumeration phase will be conducted simultaneously all over India from Feb 9 to 28 next year,' senior census operation official Dilip Acherjee told.
The 45-day first phase of the census, which included house listing and door-to-door headcount for the National Population Register (NPR), ended in August.
Acherjee said: 'After the field work is over, the forms have been transported to data processing centres located at 15 cities across the country. The six-phase data processing and scanning are now underway in these 15 centres and the process would be completed by November.'
Acharjee said that after the actual population enumeration (Feb 9-28, 2011), a five-day revision round would be held between March 1-5, 2011 followed by the declaration of the preliminary census result March 25, 2011.
The official said that after the Feb 9 to 28 census, the caste-based census works would be carried out by the government between June and September 2011.
The US Census Bureau and four United Nations (UN) agencies recently separately held 'sharing of experience sessions' with the Indian census officials in New Delhi.