Personal data will be kept confidential, says director

The personal data collected by enumerators from respondents as part of the general census will be kept confidential, T K Anil Kumar, director of Census Operations said.  The first phase of the general census - house listing and house census - will begin on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference in Bangalore on Tuesday, Anil Kumar said the purpose of the census is to collect socio-economic data of all persons to formulate programmes. “We will burn records of data collected from respondents once the process of analysing the data is completed,” he said.

The programme is spread over two phases. House listing and house census in the first phase will be followed by population enumeration from February to March 2011. K S Prabhakar, nodal officer for Census operations, said teachers had been appointed for enumeration.

Significance

The General Census - 2011 is different from the previous census because this programme has been linked with the Centre’s unique identity number issuing programme, monitored by UIDAI.  Enumerators visiting households will collect data, in a separate format for issuing UID also.

Timing

Enumerators will visit houses anytime in the day. Residents will not get prior notice of their visit.  The Directorate has trained 1.03 lakh enumerators to collect data. Each enumerator is assigned to visit between 120 and 150 houses during the 45-day census period.

Language

The Directorate provides forms, to be filled by enumerators, in both Kannada and English.
The residents have to put his/her signature on the form after verifying the data entered. In select places of north Karnataka enumerators are provided with forms in Marathi to help those who do not know either Kannada or English.