The University of Kerala will have the facility to access all the published census tables from 1991-2011 with the country’s third and the State’s first research-based census data work station opening for researchers and teachers here this month.
The work station, set up at the Department of Demography, on the Karyavattom campus, will allow researchers to access relevant census data at the micro level. The Rs.20-lakh project had been set up jointly by the Office of the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India and the university.
An MoU was signed between N. Ravichandran, Joint Director, Census Operations, Kerala, and the Registrar, University of Kerala, in September last year. C. Chandramouli, Registrar General and Census Commissioner, will launch the new workstation.
The first such work station was set up at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, during 2011-12 and the second at Panjab University. Under the 12th Five Year Plan, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs decided to set up 18 such work stations in various universities across India. The decision was taken after the Ministry received a positive response from the JNU centre.
P.P. Joy, Deputy Director, Census Operations, Kerala, said such a repository of the census data, which was not regularly published, could be a good source for research scholars and educators.
“The detailed information will include important summary indicators and tables. This will be very helpful for the researchers and students who want to make an in-depth study of the country’s various growth indicators including population, housing amenities, and other socio-economic trends,” he said.
Speaking to The Hindu , L. Ajitha, Assistant Director of Census Operations, said only hard copies of customised tables generated from the census database would be available on request while soft copies would have to be purchased from the Office of Census Operations.
The work station will have raw data and other details useful for research and in-depth studies. The university will allow restricted data access to scholars and researchers without revealing the identities of the population surveyed, she added.
