ਮਹਾਤਮਾ ਗਾਂਧੀ ਸਟੇਟ ਇੰਸਟੀਚਿਊਟ ਆਫ਼ ਪਬਲਿਕ ਐਡਮਿਨਿਸਟ੍ਰੇਸਨ, ਪੰਜਾਬ
Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (MGSIPA), Punjab

Census Data Research Workstation

1. The Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (ORG&CCI) is an attached office of the Ministry of Home Affairs and has currently 35 offices all over the country. Besides the Head Office at New Delhi and Language Division at Kolkata, 33 offices are located in States/UTs and are known as Directorate of Census Operations (DCOs). The Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (ORG&CCI) has its own administrative setup. The office is responsible for:

   • Conduct of decennial Population Census under the Census Act 1948, tabulate and disseminate the Census data.

   • Coordinating and unifying at the National level, the work under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.

   • Estimating at the National and State level, fertility and mortality rates through the Sample Registration System (SRS).

   • Preparation of National Register of Indian Citizens as since 2003, Registrar General, India has been designated as National Registration Authority and Registrar General of Citizen Registration under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003.

   • Preparation & updation of National Population Register (NPR).

2. Conduct of the Census is a role assigned to Government of India, under the Constitution. The Indian Census has a rich tradition and enjoys the reputation of being one of the best in the world. The first Census in India was conducted in the year 1872. This was conducted at different points of time in different parts of the country. In 1881, the Census was conducted for the entire country simultaneously. Since then, Census has been conducted every ten years, without a break in spite of several adversities like wars, epidemics, natural calamities, political unrest, etc. This mammoth administrative exercise of collection of micro level data for the entire country, requiring huge commitment of manpower and material resources, is conducted by the Government of India every ten years with the active support of States/UTs. Census, 2011 is the fifteenth in this unbroken series since 1872 and the seventh after independence.

3. The Post-Census operations call for tabulation of the data collected during Census, in proper format, at the earliest, with high level of accuracy, to make it available for use by all concerned. Accordingly, after every Census, ORGI and DCOs publish a wealth of data with regard to statistics on population.

4. At the time of each decennial Census huge array of information is collected from each person in the country on various subjects like social, demographic, economic and other related aspects. Information is also collected about the household and about housing condition, amenities and assets available.

5. This huge information collected is then used to generate specific pre-formatted tables for use by a wide range of data users. At the Census 2011, more than 300 tables were generated using the database of information on more than 1.20 billion people. Besides, on request from data users customized tables are also generated for their specific use from the database.

6. As information is power and as collection of information itself is very costly, many countries allow researchers the access to such a huge dataset as in Census for individual research. The ORGI has also extended this facility to the researchers and established 18 Workstations in different Universities/Institutes for research on micro-data from Indian Census.

Keeping the above in view, the ORGI has set up “Census Data Research Workstation” at the Institute under an MoU with the Institute. The objectives of the workstation are as follows:

• • The objective for setting up the Workstation is to permit qualified researchers optimum use of anonymized micro-data from census for in-depth research by allowing access for generating cross tabulations not published by the Census. The facility is open to all including those who are not enrolled or part of the university.

  • Such research would not only allow greater utilization of data by way of generating cross-tabulations from confidential micro-data not otherwise possible by using aggregate level data available in public domain. An in-depth study might also contribute towards using improving methodology of data collection during census as well as identify strengths and weaknesses of the micro-data.

  • Each set of observations arrived at the data centre after research would be the end result of decision rules covering definitions, classifications, coding procedures, processing, editing, etc. The validity and consequence of all these decision rules only become evident when the ORGI's micro databases would be tested in the course of analysis. Exposing to the light of research the conceptual and processing assumptions that are embedded in the Census micro-databases constitute an important element in improving the quality of data.

1. Dr. Sanjeev Chadda, Professor (Management), M: 8727857116

2. Sh. Umang Sharma, Associate Fellow (SA), M: 9872976684