In the 18-day exercise, a total of 8,500 census supervisors will be knocking on the doors of about 5.8 million households across the country, listing the names of the heads of families. [break]
Besides the number of families, census supervisors will also come up with the statistics of numbers of families, their castes and genders during household listings. In the process, they will also find out the exact number of those who want to be identified as third genders.
Dr Rudra Suwal, Director of the CBS, says household listing is an important process as it provides a foundation for over 34,000 enumerators to collect details about the country´s population in mid-June. “Excluding even a single household will affect the accuracy of the census statistics,” Dr Suwal said. “I, therefore, urge all to cooperate with and respond seriously to our supervisors when they visit households for filling questionnaires.”
Each of the supervisors will have to list around 1,000 households in the Tarai, 900 households in hills and 700 households in mountains. The CBS has set up 80 offices in 75 districts to monitor the works of supervisors. The CBS has appointed lower-secondary level teachers, who are not above 45 years of age, and some population graduates, as supervisors.
During the census 2011, the country´s population is expected to rise to 28.5 million. However, the new census is being watched keenly by every one also because it is set to take place after the end of the war. With advanced technologies and most comprehensive questionnaires in place, the new census is sure to unravel interesting facts and figures, including a surge in migration triggered by the war and the rapid development of telecommunications.
An agriculture census
The household listings for the upcoming census can be termed as an exercise for collecting agriculture-related statistics since much of it deals with the issues of agriculture. Besides the questions about families, the questionnaires consists of queries like areas of farmlands possessed by families, numbers and types of livestock as well as cottage industry.
Subsequently after the new census, the CBS is all set to carry out an agriculture survey early next year. The agriculture details collected by census supervisors during this household listing will be useful for the next year´s agro-survey. “The next year´s agriculture survey will extensively use the outcome of this household listing,” Dr Suwal said.
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