Census 2011 - Questions

Currently, India is running one of its biggest projects - Census 2011. This is the 15th time that this exercise is being conducted. Because of the sheer population, 2011 seems to be bigger than the previous 14 census. The next one will be bigger.

The enumerators visited my home some days ago. There were a set of standard questions on the family setup. This was on expected lines.

There were also some questions on the house (structure) like number of rooms, number of loos, source of water etc. Though the question on number of loos was a surprise, I later realised that the question makes sense in rural areas where the loo is still an open field. Hygiene factors are measured and this may influence govt budgeting. Census is also trying to measure the success of Govt schemes (There was a scheme in Udupi district of Karnataka, where the panchayat provided around 1200Rs for building loos in the house where it was not existent). 

  

Then came the questions regarding the assets. Like in the previous census, there were questions like do we own a TV & radio. But there were a couple of new questions that caught my ears. "Do you have a computer or a laptop? Is there internet connection available?"  Will be interesting to see the data here. The other question was on telephones\mobiles. It would be interesting to check numbers of landline connections and compare it with the next census data. It would go down for sure, but by how much is the question. They did not ask questions on other assets like "Do you own a washing machine\oven\gaming console\geyser?" Could be because govt is not directly involved in the sales of these. Census is not a marketing tool for private companies.

Census sticker on my door

One question I seriously missed was about food habits - Veg, non-veg, alcohol, smoking habits etc. Won't this be of interest for Govt planning? States can decide to go dry, increasing plan outlay for agriculture or poultry farms based on this data.

I have participated, so has my family. If you have not participated in the census, you still can - Refer to the FAQ in the official website. Karnataka will finish the exercise on June 1st. State specific schedules are also available in the official website.