With more than 2.25 lakh business enterprises, Dakshina Kannada retains the number two position in the State, according to the provisional figures of the 2012 economic census. This represents a nearly 10 per cent growth since the economic census of 2005.
The difference between the district and Bangalore city, which occupies the top spot, is that while the latter has many establishments (companies employing more than eight employees), private enterprises in Dakshina Kannada comprise mostly the unorganised sector of beedi workers, said officials from the Department of Statistics.
The census catalogues private enterprises in nearly 22 sectors, and once enumerated will reflect the economic health of the region. The last economic survey was conducted in 2005, and the results from this economic survey will show the extent of growth of recession of the specific sectors of the economy in the district, said Statistics officers.
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Though the figures are yet to be tabulated category-wise, officials said the number of beedi workers has gone down; while individual entrepreneurship – for example, setting up petty shops or owning autorickshaws – has gone up in the district.
Though the enumeration was scheduled to start in October 2013 and finish by December 2013, the census seems to be stumbling over roadblocks at every step. Officials say even the new deadline of August 2014 may not be met here.
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The first delay, which pushed the deadline to March 2014, was due to the shortage of enumerators: more than 1,300 enumerators and 650 supervisors were needed to cover nearly 3,930 census blocks (roughly 150 households each).
“At Rs. 7 per enterprise, the rate did not attract many people to work as enumerators. Finally, we had to take anganwadi workers and then train them, but many left after the training. The enumeration in rural areas was very slow,” said N.K. Nagendra, former District Statistical Officer, who retired barely a month ago.
By February, Dakshina Kannada was the only district that was yet to submit the data.
When the collection of data did get over in April this year, the May-end deadline for data processing – which would give us category-wise details and other intricacies of the data – was the next to zip by.
Districts were given a mandate to outsource the data entry at Rs. 2 per sheet, but officials here admit no company had come forward due to the low rate and possible low information quality of the sheets filled by anganwadi workers.
“We held a meeting on Wednesday and asked tahlsildars and chief officers of town councils to convince government officials to take up the task.
“But we doubt if officials will sit after work and enter data. And even if they do, completing 40,000 sheets in one taluk by August is nearly impossible,” said an official.