Census 2021: Pilot survey begins in three districts of Odisha

Bhubaneswar: With preparations underway for the 2021 Census across the country, Odisha today kick-started pretesting from - Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area, Pattamundai Tehsil in Kendrapara district and Puintala block in Bolangir district.

Enumerators went door-to-door and collected data and in the first phase of data collection, house listing operations have begun. Prabhakar Barad, joint director of census operations in Odisha, accompanied the enumerators today in Bhubaneswar.

"House listing and the pretest of National Population Register (NPR) begun from today and it will continue till September 3. The NPR that we are preparing will help us get the citizenship data," said Barad.

Prasanna Kumar Rout, an enumerator in Bhubaneswar, said, "We are collecting details of family members, family head, drinking water facility and condition of their house. We are also asking them about details of their assets."

After the pretesting, a pilot survey will begin from September 10 to 19. Next year, from April to September, house listing and national population survey will be conducted. For house listing 33 and for NPR 15 questions will be asked to families.

Later, from February 9, 2021 to February 21, the second or the actual population census will begin. In this phase, people will have to answer a total of 28 questions.

Meanwhile, people were excited about the ongoing pilot survey. "It's good for our country. This will help us know the population and the type of population we have right now," said a resident of Bhubaneswar, Satabdi Majumdar.

To carry out the census operations across the 30 districts of Odisha, around 1 lakh enumerators are likely to be roped in.