The Chennai Corporation is gearing up for Census 2011, to be conducted between February 9 and 28. Even though there is influx of large number of people in the city from other parts of the country, the data collected so far by the civic body state that the population has increased only by around 2.4 lakh since 2001 which is less than half of the decadal increase of 5.02 lakh in 1991-2001.
According to data collected so far by various operations, including house-listing conducted recently, the population of the city is around 45.8 lakh. According to Census 2001, the city had a population of 43.43 lakh.
There is also a decrease in population in some areas such as T.Nagar, according to estimates made during the house-listing operations a few months ago.
Officials of the Chennai Corporation are yet to find the reason and are depending on provisional population data of the Census 2011 to throw more light on demography of Chennai.
Officials of the Directorate of Census Operations Tamil Nadu said the scanning of the schedules of the house-listing operations is under way and the official announcement of the population of the city would be made in April.
School teachers asked to participate
The civic body has started to impart training to over 9,500 employees, including supervisors and enumerators for the Census 2011. It has also asked school teachers to participate in Census 2011 and cover all areas.
Reconnaissance of residential areas in the city by enumerators will start on Sunday, as part of the preliminary steps for Census 2011.
Officials of the Directorate of Census Operations Tamil Nadu said that the reason for the decrease noticed in population growth rate of the city may perhaps be because of residents not able to provide data during house-listing done a few months ago.
Complaints received
“We received a number of complaints on enumerators not turning up for house-listing in Chennai,” said an official of the Directorate of Census Operations.
The house-listing did not cover institutions and Census 2011 would cover persons in institutions such as prison, old age home, ashrams and those who are homeless.
Unwillingness of residents for enumeration, slum rehabilitation on the suburbs and relocation of more people towards the suburbs are being cited as possible reasons for reduction in population growth by the civic body.
