Govt wants to find out what you own

New Census exercise, which will begin in October, will see enumerators ask you questions about your possessions from ceiling fans to ACs to ascertain the success of government schemes

Govt wants to find out what you own

New Census exercise, which will begin in October, will see enumerators ask you questions about your possessions from ceiling fans to ACs to ascertain the success of government schemes

A soon-to-be-conducted exercise will see the state government take the idea of a Census to a whole new level.

For, not only will the Census officer ask for your caste and religion during his visit, he will also ask you questions about your possessions to ascertain your economic condition and the extent of the success of government schemes.

Census officials will now use handheld devices
instead of paper to record your data

The exercise, which is slated to begin on October 2 and end by December 31, will be a paperless one and officers will be given handheld devices to make data entries.

No documents will be asked for and teams comprising an enumerator and a data-entry operator will conduct house-to-house surveys.

"An important part of the massive exercise will be finding out the living standards of families based on the quality of their dwelling and the household items they are using.

Officers will ascertain the type of house apartment, a small room in a chawl or a shanty and ask people about items such as fans, ACs and refrigerators owned by them," said a senior Mantralaya official.

He said the government wants to know how various schemes aimed at different sections of the population are being implemented.

"A scientific study of government schemes and their implementation, which seeks the social and economic status of the people along with the exact number of BPL families is being undertaken for the first time.
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This will also help us find out the fake beneficiaries of government schemes," he added.

Finding out whether people are aware of the 29 schemes aimed at benefiting poor people is also on the government's agenda. Such an exercise is currently on in small states such as Tripura and Nagaland.

To complete the survey in 2.24 lakh enumeration blocks across the state, the help of 62,000 enumerators and 11,000 supervisors is being taken, said the official.