Bhubaneswar: The State Government today issued a notification allowing changes in administrative boundaries of the district, sub-division, block, tehsil, village and urban local bodies (ULBs) till June 2025.
The Revenue and Disaster Management Department has brought out the notification stating, “The boundaries of administrative units for ensuring Census will be frozen on July 1, 2025.”
The State Government has taken this move in the wake of Centre’s decision to conduct caste-based enumeration along with the normal Census.
The 2021 Census, which was supposed to start in 2020, was delayed for five years. First it was due to Covid pandemic and then, the Government of India did not take any step to conduct the crucial Census 2021, may be for election.
The first synchronous Census was conducted in 1881 and thereafter it has taken place every ten years. Last Census was conducted in 2011.
The castes and tribes which are specifically notified as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) as per the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order 1950, as amended from time to time, are enumerated in the Census. The Government of India has not enumerated caste wise population other than SCs and STs in Census since independence.
For the Census of India 2021, the Government of India has approved Rs 8754.23 crore.
In the history of Indian Census, for the first time, the Census data will be collected digitally i.e. on Mobile App in the ensuing census. Mobile Apps for collection of data and a Census Portal for management and monitoring of various Census related activities have been developed, sources said.
For the first time, a separate code directory will be provided for several questions asked in the second phase of forthcoming Census. For the questions involving descriptive/non-numeric entries, a separate Code Directory, containing possible responses and codes for each such questions, has been prepared for use by the enumerators, they said.
The Code Directory will have codes in respect of Relationship to head, Mother Tongue and Other languages known, Occupation, Nature of industry, trade or service, Birth place/Place of last residence and Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) etc.
The Census operations in India have been carried out in two phases: – i) Houselisting and Housing Census and ii) Population Enumeration. During the Houselisting and Housing Census, all buildings, Census Houses and Households are identified and systematically listed in the relevant schedules.
The Population Enumeration follows the Housing Census within a gap of six to eight months. During the second phase of census taking, each person is enumerated and her/his individual particulars like age, marital status, religion, SC/ST, mother tongue, education level, disability, economic activity, migration, fertility (for females) are collected.
The enumerators will also ask whether the head of the household belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or Other category, ownership status of the census house, number of dwelling rooms exclusively in possession of the household, number of married couple(s) living in the household, main source of drinking water, availability of drinking water source and main cereal consumed in the household.