Left-wing extremism has taken a toll on census operations, prompting data collection personnel to drop plans of undertaking door-to-door surveys across the Naxal-affected areas.
Census officials told Business Standard that given the vulnerability in these areas, the data collection personnel — who comprise mostly school teachers — would skip areas which they could not cover in the first phase of census operation that started in April. Instead, centres will be set up at the tehsil or sub-division level to collect data.
“Of course, there have been disruptions in the census activities due to disturbances in various parts of the country. However, we do not intend to go back and have door-to-door collection again but will set up centres where people can come and register themselves,” said C Chandramouli, registrar general and census commissioner of India.
The operations would also cover Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East, parts of which are facing internal security problems. According to officials, the census operations, which take place once a decade, were significantly disrupted due to disturbances in these parts of the country.
The operation is a comprehensive process costing around Rs 6,000 crore, which not only has greater coverage than any other survey in the country but also has the potential to capture greater details. The latest census will engage about 2.5 million people in the data collection exercise and will take into account not only the availability of basic amenities like housing, water and sanitation, but also the quality of such amenities in terms of quality of drinking water, type of sanitation and material used for building houses in a particular area.
The process ideally involves visiting each household and gathering particulars. However, such a comprehensive endeavour is not possible in areas where there are restrictions to normal mobility, which includes parts of Jammu and Kashmir and areas affected by recent Naxal attacks.
After people register at the designated centres, data will be printed and displayed in prominent locations for the public to see. Objections among the community members will be addressed at this stage. Each of these objections will then be enquired into by the local revenue department officer and a proper disposal given in writing. People aggrieved by such order will have a right of appeal to the tehsildar and then to the district collector. Once this process is over, the lists will be placed in the Gram Sabha in villages and the Ward Committee in towns.
“There is another problem in the Naxal-affected areas, as Gram Sabhas are not very active in every district and thus lists will have to be prepared with whatever information we have,” said another census official, who did not wish to be identified.
Though setting up camps at the tehsil level will be done for other districts all over the country as well, it is supposed to be useful for those who have missed on the door-to-door survey operations.“We are doing all we can do to publicise the census activities in vulnerable areas to and the coverage would be good,” Chandramouli added.
