Enumeration feasibility of caste census

Post by Prashant Gavit

ME11B115

The Government of India  decided to conduct first the Caste Census in the year 2011-12. The Caste Census  performed by the respective State/Union Territory. government of India provided them financial help for SECC.   SECC started on june of 2011 and still going on . This is the first time that such a program is started in the country.

There are three types of enumeration

·         Pre Enumeration

·         Enumeration Phase

·         Post Enumeration

Pre enumeration:

 Enumerators are basic workers for SECC.An enumerator works at the lowest level in caste census 2011 they went to each household and collected data for census, each enumerator gets a enumeration blog (EB), for his enumeration. Each enumeration block consist of 100-125 households with a population of 650-700 persons . The enumeration blocks carved out during the population enumeration phase of Census 2011  used for the Caste Census. During Census 2011, every enumeration block noted down in a Charge Register. This Register has information of the Towns and Villages, the enumeration blocks carved out in each of these Towns and Villages. A copy of the Charge Register was available with the SECC Charge Officer. That was used in Caste Census 2011. The list of households with the name of the head of household, present in a particular enumeration block during the Census 2011, called the Abridged House list .enumerator gets copy of AHL. each enumerator updates the AHL.  in case large changes were noted, the supervisory officers  are expected to personally check such enumeration block and ensure that the variations are genuine. In every Census , teachers generally worked as enumerators. For the SECC, enumerators were appointed from a larger pool of Government Officials as a enumerator. For training of enumerators a three tier cascade of training  is provided by government. At the National level, a group of trainers  intensively trained, called as NT. These NTs trained a group of trainers at the State level, called as Master Trainer Facilitators (MTFs). The MTFs trained trainers at the District  level called Master Trainers (MTs). The MTs trained the enumerators and supervisors at the Tehsil/Ward level. there were supervisors , who supervise enumerators. A list of all the names and codes gets  loaded in the hand-held device of the enumerator before she/ he goes for the field-work for that enumeration block. After asking questions, the householder was given a pre-printed slip with signature of the enumerator and data entry operator as a token of their visit.

Enumeration: Same area (blocks) as used for the Census 2011 were used for the SECC . The basic and important thing for enumeration  is the enumeration block containing 125 to 150 household with population 650 to 700 people . In SECC government used Respondent based canvasser method. In other words, enumerator goes to every household and asks questions, the responses of the person are noted down without any verification. No proof or document is asked from answering person in SECC. Acknowledgement slips were given by enumerator to each household immediately after enumeration in that household is over.   Separate questionnaires for rural and urban areas had been developed in SECC. The question on Religion and Caste are also part of these questionnaires. That important data like household number, household persons name get loaded on to hand held devices.   Data entry was done on a hand-held enumeration device (tablet PC) in English. (a photo of tablet pc used in SECC 2011 is given below)

 After all simplification, it showed in – English and Local Language. The  hardware(t ablet pc) was produced by the Ministry of Rural Development through the Public Sector Undertaking M/s Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The  software for tablet pc was developed by BEL. The data entry operators required for handling the hand held device was provided by BEL. The Collectors/DMs conducts the survey in their respective working area. They use the services of Tehsildars/BDOs at the sub-district level and the revenue /development machinery below them.   The data gets collected by enumerators who had to be appointed at the local level.  teachers could not be utilized for this survey due to  the Right of Education Act, so enumerators provided from among the revenue/development/health functionaries. Therefore, patwaries, panchyat secretaries, ASHA workers, anganwadi workers, municipal workers and postal workers  appointed for this purpose. The total enumeration process gets 5 week day period. Enumerators got  1 day for 15 to 20 house.

 District Administration finalizes work assignment for enumerator and supervisors.Supervisors and enumerators  familiar with the local context, language and dialect but are not belong from the same block as the survey block.  Each team (one enumerator and one supervisor) gets – (a) one “hand-held enumeration device” (tablet PC) with preloaded questionss along with name of Head of Household; (b) instruction manual for supervisor; (c) instruction manual for enumerator; (d) the Census layout Map of the enumeration block; (d) the Abridged Houselist; and (e) acknowledgement slip booklets. Tehsil office (Charge center identified for Population Census in rural area) acts as main center for the enumeration team. The Enumerator along with the data entry operator makes door-to-door visits on each day. After the questionnaire  filled-in, the enumerator reads  the information given by respodent  and  gives a preprinted slip with signature of both the enumerator and data entry operator as token of his visit and asks to sign an acknowledgment slip.after all questionnaires enumerator saves the data.in each enumeration block charge office selects 10 percent household supervisory verification. After all data collection enumerator  saves file in sever in tehsil office. A Tehsildar or an officer appointed by government is the main incharge for data collection in server.  If the enumerator does not agree with the answers got by the respondent, the enumerator can separately note this along with the reason(s) for her/his disagreement in the text box/space provided for the purpose. 
information collected in rural area
1)occupation.
2)education 
3)disability
4)religion
5)SC/ST status
6)name of caste / tribe
7)employment
8)income and source income
9)assets
10)housing
11)consumer durable and non durable
12)land

                Post enumeration: according to manual provided  government for SECC After all data,  which got collected get converted in  draft list  prepared with all information in the survey questionnaire. Information on the person’s / household’s religion and caste/ tribe name will not get published until the process is complete.

·       1)  Panchayat Office

·       2)   Another prominent location in the Panchayat

·     3)    Office of the BDO.

 Claims and objection get accept if someone sent it by post or courier, if the identity of the complainant is legibly mentioned. SECC of some states are going on. some have completed.. list is given below.

Sr#	Name of State / Union Territories	Total EBs	EBs Enumerated	% of EBs Completed	EBs uploaded to NIC	% of EBs Uploaded to NIC
States where enumeration is completed
1	Puducherry	2,310	2,310	100.00%	2,062	89.26%
2	Diu & Daman	439	439	100.00%	409	93.17%
3	Dadra & N H	690	690	100.00%	690	100.00%
4	Chandigarh	2,067	2,067	100.00%	2,067	100.00%
5	Tripura	7,316	7,316	100.00%	7,313	99.96%
6	Haryana	49,261	49,261	100.00%	49,261	100.00%
7	Punjab	52,243	50,712	97.07%	50,712	97.07%
8	HimachalPradesh	25,036	25,036	100.00%	24,020	95.94%
9	Nagaland	4,078	4,078	100.00%	4,078	100.00%
10	Lakshadweep	117	117	100.00%	117	100.00%
11	Karnataka	1,26,925	1,26,925	100.00%	1,26,635	99.77%
12	Rajasthan	1,38,064	1,37,292	99.44%	1,37,156	99.34%
13	Gujarat	1,13,507	1,12,569	99.17%	1,12,569	99.17%
14	Arunchal Pradesh	6,791	6,791	100.00%	6,785	99.91%
15	Chhattisgarh	49,222	49,169	99.89%	49,167	99.89%
16	Jammu and Kashmir	25,200	25,159	99.84%	25,105	99.62%
17	A & N Islands	1,198	1,159	96.74%	1,159	96.74%
18	Sikkim	1,415	1,415	100.00%	1,384	97.81%
19	Kerala	68,363	68,363	100.00%	64,437	94.26%
20	Mizoram	2,301	2,234	97.09%	2,234	97.09%
21	Goa	3,166	3,166	100.00%	3,051	96.37%
22	Uttarakhand	27,878	27,797	99.71%	27,165	97.44%
23	Madhya Pradesh	1,56,486	1,56,344	99.91%	1,53,406	98.03%
24	Delhi	33,324	33,174	99.55%	32,875	98.65%
25	Andhra Pradesh	1,92,143	1,87,738	97.71%	1,81,508	94.47%

States where enumeration is in progress
26	Meghalaya		9,116		9,054		99.32%		8,963		98.32%
27	Tamilnadu		1,43,905		1,38,734		96.41%		1,32,354		91.97%
States where enumeration progress is slow
28	Assam		64,421		64,243		99.72%		64,008		99.36%
29	Maharashtra		2,22,601		2,04,844		92.02%		2,01,754		90.63%
30	West Bengal		1,78,293		1,69,292		94.95%		1,60,511		90.03%
31	Orissa		96,808		87,524		90.41%		84,222		87.00%
32	Jharkhand		71,719		53,338		74.37%		44,434		61.96%
33	Manipur		6,006		4,030		67.10%		3,328		55.41%
34	Bihar		2,05,859		88,276		42.88%		71,246		34.61%
35	U.P		3,94,253		2,01,662		51.15%		1,18,519		30.06%
Total		24,82,521		21,02,318		84.68%		19,54,704		78.74%
* Report Generated according to BEL consolidate report as on 08 Oct 2012

source:

* Supervisory manual of caste census 20 June 2012 , by govt. of India.

* socio economic caste census procedure, by rural govt. of India.
* PRC_Agenda_SECC15_16Oct2012 pdf file.(linkwww.rural.nic.in/sites/.../PRC_Agenda_SECC15_16Oct2012.pdf )