Be counted: once and only once
H. R. Gunasekera
Population and Housing Census is the largest statistical undertaking
of a country. It is vital for providing information about the population
in order to present a full and reliable picture of the population in the
country in terms of its size and spatial distribution, its demographic,
social and economic characteristics, as well as its housing conditions.
The Census is the only reliable source for detailed information on
the population at the level of small administrative areas. As a source
for evidence-based decision making, Census data have many uses. It
provides essential information for policy development and planning, for
managing and evaluating programme activities across a broad range of
applications, and for monitoring overall development progress. Census
data also play an indispensable role in the calculation of social
indicators, particularly those that are needed for small areas.
Sri Lanka has a long history of Census taking. The first of a
scientific series of decennial Census was conducted in 1871. Thirteen
Censuses were held thereafter. The last Census conducted in 2001, after
a lapse of 20 years, could not cover the whole country. The current
Census which is the 14th in the series has a special significance as it
is able to cover the whole country including Northern and Eastern
provinces after 30 years.
Organization of Census
Since 1946 the Department of Census and Statistics has conducted the
Censuses with the collaboration of the district administration. The
superintendent of Census is the Director General of the Department and
has the overall responsibility of the Census. The district
administration plays a major role in conducting the Census. District
Secretary has been appointed as Census Commissioner for the respective
district and Additional District Secretary is the Deputy Census
Commissioner. Divisional Secretary (DS) has been appointed as Deputy
Census Commissioners for the respective DS division and Assistant
Divisional Secretary is the Assistant Census Commissioner. Necessary
technical guidance is provided by the staff of the Department of Census
and Statistics.
There are three main stages of the Census taking operation. The first
stage is mapping. In this operation complete and up to date maps are
drawn for Grama Niladhari (GN) division boundaries and small enumeration
areas known as Census Blocks are demarcated within GN divisions. A
census block consists of approximately 150 building units. The whole
country is divided into about 65,000 census blocks. This stage has been
completed in 2010. The second stage is the listing operation. During
this operation, based on the maps prepared, all the building units are
given a number and labeled. In addition to numbering, some key
information is also collected during the listing operation. This stage
was carried out in April 2011. This serves as the basic frame for
collecting the information.
Enumeration stage
The final stage is enumeration. Data collection is carried out during
three weeks period from February 27 to March 19. Enumerators visit each
and every housing unit and other living quarters and collect the
information from all usual residents in these units. Housing
characteristics are also collected in the Census. Census day is March
20. Census moment is the beginning of the Census day i.e. 12.00 mid
night of March 19. It is taken as the reference time of the Census.
Based on the Census moment, roofless persons are enumerated at the place
where they spent the night of March 19. Special arrangements have been
made to enumerate such population. During the two days, March 20-21
enumerator will visit again and collected data are updated based on
births, deaths and changes of usual residents in the household, occurred
during the three weeks period.
There are about 80,000 specially trained enumerators throughout the
island to canvass the information. They were selected by Divisional
Secretaries who are the Deputy Commissioners of Census in the areas.
Each enumerator is issued with an identity card and will carry it at the
time of enumeration. About 16,000 government offices deployed as
supervisors.
Population and Housing Census are conducted under the Census
ordinance. Accordingly every person is legally bound to provide the
information asked for in the Census. On the other hand, confidentiality
of information is guaranteed and the individual information collected in
the Census is not divulged to anyone. Data are disseminated only at
aggregated levels.
Types of information
The basic information collected from usual residents are Name,
National Identity Card (NIC) number, relationship to head of household,
Sex, Date of birth, Marital status. Religion, ethnic group and
citizenship. To measure migration patterns district of birth, duration
of stay in the district, district of previous residence and reason for
migration are collected. Considering the current importance, reason of
migration is introduced in this Census. Under the physical and mental
difficulties information is gathered on difficulties in seeing, hearing,
walking, cognition, self care and communication, from all usual
residents. Educational characteristics are collected through the
questions on school attendance, highest educational and professional
qualification, literary in three languages and computer literacy. For
the first time in a Census, information is collected on the computer
literacy and professional qualifications. Economic activities are yet
another important set of information. Economic activities section
include information on activities engaged in last 12 months, occupation,
name of the work place, employment status and sector (Government,
private etc.) and non economic activity. Information on child births are
asked from ever married women and includes questions on number of
children ever born, number of living children and date of birth of the
last live born child. In additional to the above information on usual
residents, some basic details are collected from members of the
household who are living abroad for more than six months (except for
those who live permanently). The information collected are name, sex,
age, country of residence and the reason for going abroad.
The information collected from housing units are: source of drinking
water, type of cooking fuel, type of lighting, toilet facilities, method
of solid waste disposal, tenure, communication equipments and Internet
facilities at home. The latter two items i.e. Information on
communication equipments and Internet facilities at home have introduced
for the first time in this Census. As the government has taken various
measures to improve the skills of the public in information and
communication technology, these data together with the information on
computer literacy will be of immense use in evaluating and further
improvements to such programmes. For the first time in the history of
Census, data are collected through the web from a very limited group of
housing units. The consent of such households has been taken to
participate in the e- Census. They can download e- questionnaire from
the web and submit after on-line completion. These are password
protected to safeguard, the security and confidentiality of data. The
system has been tested and implemented on an experimental basis.
Information so collected from the Census should be processed and
disseminated to data users as early as possible in order to get the
maximum benefits. In order to expedite the processing of data,
Department of Census and Statistics introduced imaged based form
processing technology such as Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)/
Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), for the first time in the
history of Population and Housing Censuses in Sri Lanka. This will
eliminate manual data entry system through the key board to the computer
and the completed questionnaires will be scanned and the data are
directly read into the data base. Another improvement is the
introduction of computer assisted coding system. This will expedite the
assigning of codes to certain descriptive items such as occupation. This
was done manually in the previous Censuses.
Master Register of Census Blocks (MRCB) which is a computerized data
base containing information at Census Block level is yet another new
application in this Census. This is an invaluable tool for monitoring
the field work, planning for materials and human resources to be sent to
the field and also for producing summary reports. The collected
information will be disseminated to the users in different stages.
Preliminary counts of population will be released first followed by a
preliminary release on population and housing based on summary reports
received from enumerators. More detailed district level, DS level and GN
level information will be disseminated in next stages.
All island reports on population and housing will be published
followed by a General Report giving more analytical aspects of the
characteristics. It is also planned to have thematic reports on
different areas such as population distribution, migration patterns,
households and families, economic activities, fertility behaviour and
housing characteristics. It is expected to establish a Geographic
Information System using the Census information consisting of spatial
data at GN division level. Census information will be disseminated
through printed and electronic media as well as via web.
Co-operation of the public
The Census of Population and Housing is an event of national
importance. The information received is vital for the development of Sri
Lanka. Every person in the country should be enumerated once and only
once at the place of usual residence.
No omissions or duplications should take place. Participation and
co-operation of the public is extremely important to have a successful
Census. They are requested to provide the accurate information to the
enumerator who visits their houses or living quarters. They can keep
ready information such as NIC number, date of birth, district of birth,
highest education and professional qualification, occupation etc., so
that the enumerator can record the information accurately and speedily.
Be counted in the Census once and only once.
The writer is a
Director at the Census and Statistics Department |
