Socio-Economic Caste Census begins

Enumerators at Coimbatore District Collector M. Karunagaran’s residence to seek details for the Socio- Economic and Caste Census that began in the district on Monday. Photo: K. Ananthan

The socio-economic and caste census (SECC), aimed at among other things ranking the households based on socio-economic status and education status of various castes, commenced in the district on Monday.

Households

Official sources told

The Hindu that a total of 7,28,157 households (based on 2011 census) in the district were to be covered during the SECC in which each of the enumerators, accompanied by a data entry operator, would enter the requisite data collected from the households directly into the hand-held computer on the spot itself making it a paperless exercise.

Of the households, 2,42,096 comes under Tirupur city limits, 68,703 under five municipalities of Vellakoil, Kangayam, Dharapuram, Palladam and Udumalpet, 63,860 under 16 town panchayat limits and 3,53,498 under 13 panchayat union limits.

For easy collection of data and to avoid omission, the district had been divided into 5,279 enumeration blocks as per the census department data. Each of the enumeration blocks have about 150 households drawn into it.

A total of 1,248 enumerators (584 for rural areas and 664 for urban localities) and 220 supervisors (97 for rural areas and 123 for urban areas) had been deployed for the census. This apart, 127 persons (58 for rural areas and 69 for urban areas) were kept as reserve enumerators and 29 officials (10 for rural areas and 19 for urban areas) as reserve supervisors.

On the day, the census exercise began with the enumerators first obtaining the details from Collector M. Mathivanan's household.

In Coimbatore

The Socio, Economic and Caste Census began on Monday. Enumerators collected data from District Collector M. Karunagaran at Race Course. The details are recorded in a laptop. Mr. Karunagaran said that census exercise is carried out once in ten years and this time caste is also verified.

There are 27 computer centres for uploading the data generated by the enumerators. The entire exercise would be completed in 40 days.The questions are very easy and the answers have to be either yes or no.

The Collector said the enumerators should pay a visit to the houses instead of asking people to come to a common place. The enumerators have been asked to carry their order of appointment with them and to show it to the people before commencing the enumeration work.