National Census Begins Today

 Kathmandu, Nov. 11: The 12th National Census 2021 is starting from Thursday.

The 15-day event will run till November 25, and enumerators will reach each family, those missed during the household listing as well, across the country and collect detailed information of the individual, family, income and other activities.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), about 40,000 enumerators will visit every single household across the country in an effort to make the actual record of the population which is needed for planning, budget allocation and other administrative works.

Director General of the CBS Nebin Lal Shrestha said at a press conference organised on Wednesday that about 8,500 supervisors would also be mobilised.

Youth who have completed their high-school education are hired as the enumerators while supervisors have the education qualification of the Bachelor's degree. Additional staff are being mobilised at all levels to ensure the quality of the statistics collected.

The CBS has established seven Provincial Census Offices, 87 district census offices and 349 local census offices across the country. More than one census offices are set up in the districts with large population. For instance, Kathmandu has five census offices, and Morang, Jhapa, Sunsari, Lalitpur, Rupandehi and Kailali have two offices each.

Likewise, Census Coordination and Facilitation Committees are formed at various levels-- from the centre to ward level.

Shrestha said that it was estimated that it would take about 20 minutes for an enumerator to fill up a questionnaire of a family. They will also fill up community questionnaire collecting information about economic, social, service, facilities, infrastructure and disaster situation from all 6,743 wards in the country.

The CBS also indicated that there was a possibility of census programme in Kalapani, Lipulek and Limpiyadhura, the area encroached by India.
Earlier, the CBS had concluded the survey for household listing in September and October. About 8,500 supervisors collected the details of about 7 million families residing in residential and community buildings in Nepal.

They collected information about the number of members in the family, use of the houses, agricultural land and livestock, government grants received, bank accounts, technical education, and access to loan in the bank and financial institutions. The household listing survey also collected data of the members in the family including their gender and sexual minorities.

The census will be conducted digitally in six municipalities, including the Kathmandu Metropolis, while e-census will be applied to collect information from the Nepali missions abroad. This is the first time the country is collecting information from the missions.

The census will be managed at the cost of Rs. 4 billion of which 1.6 billion will be spent on data collection.
Meanwhile, President Bidya Devi Bhandari has wished a success of the census 2021. She said in a message that this nationwide programme must be made successful since extensive preparations were made for the same.

"Information collected by the census is important to formulate development policy, planning and programmes," the President said. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 11 November 2021.