The Socio- Economic and Caste Census-2011 will begin in Chandigarh from July 18. Chandigarh has been chosen as one of the pilot projects for this survey. A unique feature of this Census is that the enumerators would be using specially designed hand held devices and the data collected would be fed directly into these computers.
The Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation will be the nodal ministries for the conduct of this Census. Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India and Director of Census Operations, Chandigarh will be providing the necessary logistics for this exercise.
T N Bindhyeshwari, director of Census Operations, Chandigarh informed that database created during the National Population Register (NPR) would be utilised. This database would be uploaded by Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL) onto the hand held devices, which will be used during the field survey. The necessary software has been developed by BEL. Separate questionnaires will be canvassed by an enumerator and an operator provided by BEL in rural and urban areas respectively.
Respondent-based canvasser method would be adopted for the survey. The questions on caste enumeration have been added to both the questionnaires. Bindhyeshwari also informed that during the peration, officers from the Directorate of Census Operations will be deployed for supervision and co-ordination.