Activity room

Taking head-count

No one can beat us in the game of numbers - except China. A dubious distinction. If you'd read the lead story in Young World last week, you'd know about the census in ancient India. In fact in the last two months, The Hindu has carried numerous news items and features on this decennial exercise. You may recall that in the first Christmas story which took place 2000 years ago, Jesus' mother Mary and father Joseph set out to Bethlehem, their hometown, because Augustus Caesar had ordered a census to be taken.

The 14th census of our country got over a few days ago, Census is your signature to history... went one slogan urging citizens to oblige the enumerator by answering all his questions when he called on your parents.

Today the population census has become the most prolific source of information about a nation. It not only reveals the basic demographic trends such as growth, internal redistribution changes, but also contributes to a knowledge of changes in the country's occupational composition, in its standard of living, education and employment. The quality of the content (information) is crucial, as the data gathered would be used for at least the next decade in various areas of planning.

Even if maths is not your forte, it is an interesting pastime to count the number present in a classroom when the lesson taught is not particularly fascinating. Again, if you or your friend were standing for election in school as house captain or school pupil leader, it is exciting to count the number of students who are your prospective voters. It is a happy task to take count of the number of guests likely to attend your sisters wedding.

Among the questions posed to your parents by the census enumerator is the category - travel to workplace seeking information on how far your house is from the place of work and the mode of travel to workspot. Shall we apply all these tid-bits to a parallel practical exercise you can do in schools? May be you can conduct a miniature census in your school.

Formulate a questionnaire for the students - on name, age, sex, mother tongue, languages known, literacy status, birthplace, mode of travel to school (instead of workplace) and the distance between home and school. After getting permission from the Principal and other teachers, go ahead and fire away the questions. You'll have to be polite when you are eliciting information, for one thing.

After you've got all the details, the next step is to feed the data into a computer to arrive at trends, just as the census officials do. Information provided for questions on the distance between school and home will, in turn, throw up valuable data - whether the children eat enough in school; are their mothers able to pack a full lunch because they leave home at an unearthly hour for school; do these children who commute long distance manage to finish home work everyday? How do they cope?

Another activity is: start a discussion in class on how would census officials have tackled the following problems - counting those visiting/ living abroad; those on transfer, deputation; people who live alone (do they constitute separate families: what is the criterion for family) beggars and street children and those residing/living in hostels and hotels.

Write to us on how you went about your work and your findings.

SELINE AUGUSTINE

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