Next census will count TVs, lights in your house

Data gathering for preparation of National Population Register to begin in April

The exercise will be taken up along with the house-listing operations, wherein data on amenities available in all households across the State will be gathered.

As many as 94,000 enumerators, mostly teachers, will be involved in this massive exercise, a precursor to Census 2011, scheduled to be held in February next year.
T K Anil Kumar, director, Directorate of Census Operations, Karnataka, said that Deputy Commissioners of all 30 districts of the State have been appointed as Principal Census Officers of their districts with effect from January 1, 2010.

Pilot state
Under National Population Register, personal data of every citizen in the State including date of birth, education and occupation would be collected. Its statistics would form a database for Unique Identification Authority of India (UIAI) for issue of Unique National Identity Number.
Karnataka has already been chosen by UIAI as the pilot State in the country for providing the ID numbers.

Anil Kumar said that a state-level census coordination committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary has already been constituted to ensure coordination among various department.

The committee had its first meeting on January 6.
During house-listing operation, enumerators would collect details on housing amenities, ownership, availability and source of water, lighting and sewerage facilities, number of married couples, availability of television sets, in every household, among others.
The actual population enumeration in the State, along with the rest of the country, will be held between February 9 and 28, next year.
It will be followed by five-day revisional round to update the information collected for any births/deaths occurred so as to obtain the population data as on March 1, 2011, Anil Kumar added.
DH News Service

State Census 2001

* Population: 5,28,50,562
* Male: 2,68,98,918
* Female: 2,59,51,644
* Urban population: 34 pc
* Number of households: 1,04,01,918
* Household size: 5.1
* Crude birth rate: 22.1/1000 population
* Crude death rate: 7.2/1000 population
* Infant mortality rate: 55/1000 live births