Census exercise in Gujarat to begin Feb 9
By IANSFriday, February 4, 2011
AHMEDABAD - The 15th census exercise beginning in Gujarat from Feb 9 will have the star cast of SAB TV’s popular serial “Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma” as its brand ambassadors.
With the serial director and its star cast marking presence, the state Director of Census Operations Manish Bharadwaj said here Friday that the serial is toying with the idea of dedicating an episode to the national census campaign, which is scheduled to be completed Feb 28.
“We shall devote the last day to counting of the homeless people,” Bharadwaj said.
The census director enumerated the steps being taken to heighten awareness about the campaign.
State Transport buses will carry hoardings, packets of prasad will be distributed at famous temples like Somnath, Dwarka and Ambaji, which will have census-related information. Cinema halls and FM radio stations will also air slots related to it.
The first phase of census 2011, involving house-listing, housing census and collection of data on National Population Register (NPR), was carried out from April 21 to June 4, 2010.
During the second phase beginning next week, about 27 lakh enumerators will fan out across India. They include 1.2 lakh teachers and supervisors in Gujarat, and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
Bhardwaj said that for population enumeration, 29 questions have been devised on demographic, marital status, religion, language, disability, literacy, economic activities, migration and fertility parameters.
Among the new features added this time are inclusion of the date of birth, and a new category in gender parameter (”others”, apart from male and female).
This year’s Census will be the 15th after 1881 when the British carried out a national-level Census for the first time. Unlike the USA, where the per head count costs USD 10, the Indian Census will be the cheapest in the world, at USD 0.5 per head, he added.
