Second phase of 2011 census kick starts in Orissa

BHUBANESWAR - The second phase of the 2011 Census for the population enumeration began Wednesday in Orissa with authorities making all necessary arrangements to make the findings accurate, an official said.

The head count in the state started with the enumeration of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the state’s director of the census operations Bishnupada Sethi told IANS.

The chief minister flagged off a publicity van, which will move through various parts of the state during the second phase that will conclude Feb 28, he said.

The 2011 Census of India is being conducted in two phases — a house listing operation and population enumeration.

The house listing operation along with collection of information for preparation of a National Population Register started in the state April 7 and concluded May 22 last year. The current census is the 15th since the process began in 1872. It is conducted every 10 years.

During the second phase, the enumerators will collect information about each individual through household schedules by visiting each household allotted to him or her, Sethi said adding that the counting of houseless population will be done Feb 28 night.

The enumerators will revisit all the households during March 1-5 to take into account any death, birth, arrival of visitors ever since his or her last visit till the reference moment, he said.

For the process, the entire geographical area of the state has been divided into 95,462 enumeration blocks and 12,468 supervisory circles.

This includes 2,968 slum blocks in 70 urban local bodies. Care has been taken to ensure coverage of the entire slum population.

An enumerator is required to enumerate about 800 people during the enumeration period and a supervisor is required to supervise the work of six enumerators.

For the enumeration work 73,308 enumerators and 12,448 supervisors will move house-to-house for collection of data in the state.

According to the last census in 2001, Orissa’s population was 36,706,920.