Monday, November 9, 2020

Census 2021 to include economic and social indicators

 With the slogan ‘My Census, My Participation, National Population Census 2021’, the 12th series of National Population Census – scheduled to be conducted for 15 days, from June 8 to 22 in 2021 – is going to include more economic and social indicators, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

The census will collect more descriptive details as well as additional details than the previous census, it claimed, during a video conference jointly organised by CBS and Society of Economic Journalists Nepal (SEJON). The upcoming census will collect the detailed description of the households such as ownership, its uses and structure,” informed CBS director general Nebin Lal Shrestha. “The description related to land used for agricultural purpose and its area, number of animals and birds, number of households constructed with the grant provided by the government and number of people who have taken vocational training and skilled manpower, among others, will also be included,” he said, adding that access to financial facilities including account and loan in banks and financial institutions is an addition to the questionnaire this time. “Description of facilities used by households such as drinking water, toilet, cooking fuel, electricity, television, phone, and vehicles will also be collected during the census.”

Likewise, the census – conducted every 10 years – will collect the details of property in the name of women, small family businesses, absentees in family due to labour migration and details of their work, profession. “The census will also collect data about working status, institutional area, reasons for not working and job search.”

The data will also be collected at the ward level to verify the statistics collected from the household level, the CBS has planned as it has also prepared a questionnaire of 80 questions for 2021 census. It has projected that there are around seven million households and some 30 million population in the country at the moment.

CBS will be forming eight different coordination committees encompassing different tiers of government from the central to ward level and also technical and thematic committees to reach every populace and make 2021 census successful, Shrestha said, adding that the 2021 census will be the first to be conducted under federal Nepal. “Around 43,000 enumerators and 9,000 supervising staff will be mobilised to collect data.”

According to the CBS, earlier, teachers used to be taken as enumerators but this time people from local levels will be given opportunities to be enumerators. “They will be invited through open advertising,” Shrestha said, adding that the master trainers will be trained from mid-January and they will later train the enumerators. Though, it’s difficult to conduct the census during the coronavirus times, he said, the CBS has already conducted pilot census during the time of Covid19 crisis adopting health safety protocols. “The 2021 census also will be done in the same way.”

Joint Secretary at the National Planning Commission (NPC) Suman Aryal, on the occasion, highlighted the importance of transparency and stakeholder participation during census for the quality of the statistics that are collected.

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