Week-long 6th Population & Housing Census begins

The week-long 6th Population and Housing Census begins digitally for the first time in the country.

The data from the field-level for the census will be collected from today (June 15) to June 21 while this will also be considered as 'census week'.

The midnight of June 14 (zero hour of June 15) is considered as 'census reference point or time' and from that time floating people across the country like at Kamalapur Railway Station were counted till 6:00 am on June 15.

Terming this census as an issue of utmost importance for the nation, the State Minister Dr Shamsul Alam said that this is a historic moment for the nation as the data and information of the census is very much necessary for undertaking proper planning.

He informed that the census questionnaire would have some 35 questions while the enumerators would take the answers of questions from people using tabs.

Dr Alam said that all kinds of steps have been taken to create mass awareness among people for bringing them under the coverage of census while emphasis has also been given so that every individual comes under the enumeration process and no one is left uncounted.

He said once the census is completed, around 2 crore people are likely to be added.

So far, four-day training Programmes for the district census coordinators cum master trainers, upazila census coordinators and zonal officers, and for the supervisors and enumerators were held.

For conducting the census, web-based Integrated Census Management System (ICMS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) have already been formulated while control maps for the enumeration areas have also been prepared.

To make the next census a success, some 3,65,697 enumerators, 63,548 supervisors, 3,779 IT supervisors, 3,779 zonal officers, 163 district census coordinators and some 12 divisional census coordinators will remain active in various tiers of the census activities.

President Abdul Hamid has already unveiled commemorative postage stamp marking the census. Besides, Prime Minister Hasina will address before the nation at any suitable time while voice calls will be given at the cell phones of people.

The data collected from the census would remain as encrypted for which it would be possible to ensure cent percent security to personal information.

A state of the art call center has already been set up at the BBS headquarters from where anyone through dialing 09602998877 would be able to get any census related information.

The country's first Population and Housing Census was held in the country in 1974 followed by the 2nd census in 1981, the 3rd one in 1991, the 4th census in 2001 while the 5th one in 2011.

In this census, using Geographic Information System-based digital map, data of all households of the country will be collected simultaneously through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing method using digital device 'tabs'.

Under the census operations, demographic and socio-economic data like number of households and their nature, ownership of homes, main source of drinking water, toilet facilities, power facilities, main source of fire for cooking, economic operations, inward remittance, age of household members, gender, marital status, religion, obstacles, education, work, training, mobile phone and internet usage, bank/mobile banking accounts, small ethnic groups, nationality and various district-wise information would be collected.

A supervisor will supervise the activities of some 5/6 enumerators while a zonal officer will supervise the operations of some 120 enumerators or supervisors on average.

Besides, there will be upazila census coordination officers, district census coordination officers and division census coordination officers to make this census a success.