Second phase of Census 2011 kick starts

The enumerators asked 29 questions to the chief minister, said state census director Bishnupada Sethi.

Naveen Patnaik also flagged off a publicity van, which will highlight significance of decadal census.

Later in the day, the enumerators also went to Raj Bhawan and asked as many questions to Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare as asked to chief minister.

The 2011 Census is divided into two phases. The first phase called House listing and Housing Census was conducted between April to September last year.

The second phase, called the Population Enumeration phase, starting today is being conducted simultaneously all over the country till February 28 and the entire exercise would be completed by March 5.

For this, the entire geographical area of the state has been divided into 95,462 enumeration blocks and 12,468 supervisory circles.

An enumerator is required to enumerate about 800 people during the enumeration period and a supervisor is required to supervise the work of six enumerators.

For the enumeration work 80, 708 enumerators and 13, 698 supervisors will move from door to door to collect data in the state.

Special provisions have been made so that all the sectors are included in the process.

Around 17 districts have been identified as sensitive in view of low population of women. The enumerators have been imparted special training to cover these areas.

Since the process began in 1872, slum dwellers will be enumerated for the first time.

Two volunteers from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) visited the slum areas in the state capital on Wednesday to oversee the enumeration process.

Notably, the last census in 2001 had put the state`s population at 36,706,920.