Census will focus on women

Mangalore, February 8: Don't get irritated if enumerators, who knock at your doors for the 20-day census from Wednesday, ask women members of your family too many questions. They may ask many questions to find out about differently-abled persons, if any. This is because the 2011 Census this time is focused more on women and differently-abled persons.

Enumerators will ask specific questions on economic activities of women, their places of birth, religion, reasons for migration and surviving and dead children. They will ask the religion of husband and wife separately. A.S. Diwakar, Nodal Officer for Census in Dakshina Kannada, told presspersons here on Monday that the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner had issued specific guidelines to this effect.

One of the guidelines said: “If a woman says she is a non-worker or a housewife, you should not straightaway record her as a non-worker. Probe to find out if she is simultaneously engaged in any economically productive work. Women are often engaged in unpaid, but economically productive work.” It said that in case of women, the primary reason for migration need not only be marriage or moving with household. Probe to record correctly the reasons for migration.

It asked enumerators to sensitively probe for infants, including girls who were born alive but later died, as these births and deaths were often not reported.