Revision round of Census underway

NEW DELHI: The revision round of the Census is currently being undertaken all over the country with enumerators going back to houses to record any changes that may have occurred primarily due to deaths and births in the family.

This round is part of the Population Enumeration phase, carried out from February 9 to 28, and is conducted to ensure that the data collected is not only accurate but also makes use of a defined period of time for the Census' purpose.

"Our reference date is March 1. Data has been collected from February 9 onwards. So we are trying to make up for the fact that the data was collected 20 days ahead and there maybe some event which has taken place within these 20 days.

"That may cause some significant change in the data. If anybody has passed away then we are going to cross that out. If a new baby has been born then we will record that also," Varsha Joshi, Director of Census Operations in Delhi, told PTI.

Enumerators will not be asking special questions during the time and will only enquire of changes, she said.

Houses that were left out for any reason in the February 9-28 period will also be covered in this exercise going on from March 1 to March 5.

After the revision round ends, enumerators will be required to calculate "page totals" of questions that include "items" like the literate and illiterate population, the male -female adult population and the 0-6 years population.

The entire document will be submitted by each state to the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (RGI) for a preliminary Census result, Joshi said.

"They will do their compilation and publish what is known as the Provisional Population Total for the whole country by the last week of March," she said.

Filled in physical forms will also be called back from the Enumerators for "processing" and these will be checked for any material that is "missing".

This information will then be stored, scanned into a machine readable copy and fed into a specially designed software for final results, she added.