Experts question census findings

KATHMANDU, Nov 27: Thirty six percent of the people in the country have TV sets at home, 19.33 percent have cable connection and 3.33 percent have access to internet service, as per the freshly published national population and housing census 2011. This, experts say, is just not true.



The census report has reduced the number of radio listeners to 50.52 percent as compared to 53.10 a decade ago, which experts yet again term as a flawed data. [break]



“First of all, the number of mobile users is quite huge as shown by the report itself. Which automatically means much larger population has access to internet service as the younger generation hardly uses mobile phones that do not have options for internet service,” said Ranjeet Acharya, CEO of Prisma Advertising.



According to the report, 66.63 percent of the population -- 84.07 percent in the cities and 49.98 percent in the rural areas -- has mobile phones.



“Similarly, I am sure the number of families owning TV sets is much larger than shown by the census, at least 50 to 55 percent of the population,” said Acharya, adding that many people in the rural areas have installed dish home service.



“So it is very hard to believe the census when it says only 11.10 percent of people in the villages own TV.”



Likewise, Acharya believes that number of radio listeners hasn´t declined in the manner that census reports. “The community radio is becoming even more popular which is enough to show that radio is not being replaced by any other form of entertainment. People look for radio service option while buying mobile phones,” he said.



The census report further discloses that 23.66 urban population and 3.37 rural population use computer, 32.38 percent have cycle, 9.58 own four-wheeler, and just 7.16 percent of the people have refrigerator at home.

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