'Main Cereal' eaten among 31 questions to be asked in Census-2021

"Main cereals consumed in the household" is among the list of 31 questions which will be asked by the enumerators from all persons residing in India during the mammoth Census-2021 exercise beginning in September 2020.

The question is mentioned as the 31 items which will be asked by the enumerators tasked to collect information from the people living across the country, including urban, rural and hilly areas.

A gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday reveals the information, clearing doubts created by the opposition parties regarding the National Population Register (NPR) and the Census-2021.

As per the notification, a set of 31 questions will be asked from the people by the government appointed enumerators during the exercise which would begin in September 2020 from all the hilly areas starting with Jammu and Kashmir and followed by Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Census Act, 1948 (37 of 1948), the Central Government hereby instructs that all Census Officers may, within the limits of the local ares for which they have been respectively appointed, ask all such questions from all persons on the items enumerated below for collecting information through the houselisting and housing census schedules in connection with the Census of India 2021," said the notification.

Of the 31 questions, items from one to five relate to building particulars - building number (municipal or local authority or census number), census house number, predominant material of floor, wall and roof of the census house, use of census house, and condition of the census house.

Items six to seven relate to household particulars (for census house used wholly or partly as a residence) - household number, and total number of persons normally residing in the household.

The questions from eight to 10 relate to head of the household that include name of the head of the household, sex of the head of the household; and whether the head of the household belongs to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or others.

Items nine to 31 relate to only normal household of which items 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 and 29 relate to the assets of the household, says the notification signed by Vivek Joshi, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India - the authority founded in 1961 by the Ministry of Home Affairs for arranging, conducting and analysing the results of the demographic surveys of India, including census and linguistic survey.

Ownership status of the census house, number of dwelling rooms exclusively in possession of the household, number of married couple(s) living in the household, main source of drinking water, availability of drinking water source, main source of lighting, access to latrine, type of latrine, waste water outlet, availability of bathing facility, availability of kitchen and LPG or PNG connection, main fuel used for cooking, radio or transistor, television, access to internet, laptop or computer, telephone, mobile phone or smartphone, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle or moped, car, jeep or van, main cereal consumed in the household, and mobile number (for census related communication only) are the questions from nine to 31 which will be asked during the survey.

In India, the census is conducted once every 10 years. The last census was done in 2011. Census provides a snapshot of the country's population and housing at a given point of time.

For the first time in the history of census in India, data will be collected through a mobile app for Census 2021, marking a transformation from paper census to digital census, said an official, adding that the move is being adopted to ensure reliability of the nascent system and to get an overview of the possible hitches, a pre-test run is being carried out across the country.

(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@.in)

( With inputs from IANS )