Caste census to begin from Nov 28

The much-awaited caste census will start in West Bengal from November 28.

The much-awaited caste census will start in West Bengal from November 28. The caste-based census will be conducted in two phases in 19 districts. Though the caste census has been clubbed with the socio economic survey to identify the below poverty line (BPL) families and is scheduled to be completed before the end of this year,few states including Tripura,West Bengal and Chhattisgarh have opted for only caste census for now.

The second phase of caste census will be conducted from January 8. The two phases are divided in 40 days each. Two departments of the state government Municipal Affairs Department and Panchayat Department will be involved in the latest census. The official notices have been sent to the concerned departments of the state government. We will help them with the existing data base we have about the population of the respective areas. The census operations will be conducted under the district magistrates, said a census official.

We will assist state appointed enumerators to conduct the census operation. But this time,the data will be fed in the specially developed electronic devices,instead of writing the data in the notebooks. The daily updates on the data from several areas will be uploaded in the central server, added the official.

Significantly,other states will be conducting this caste and BPL survey during different months based on the availability of the indigenously developed tablet computers that will be used to collect the data. With the government approving the caste census clubbed with BPL survey only in May this year,the Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL),which will be supplying these low-cost computers,has indicated that it will be supplying the machines in a phased manner during July-December period. In fact,BEL will be able to supply only about 10 per cent of over six lakh machines required for the entire operation to facilitate the launch. It will increase its capacity to produce the remaining machines later.

Consequently,the Centre has decided to start the operations with smaller states that will require small number of the tablet computers to conduct the survey. Under the arrangement,while BEL will be providing data entry operators to operate these machines,the state governments will be providing enumerators for conducting the survey. It is estimated that over one lakh data entry operators are likely to be engaged for the operation.

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BPL families