Thaindian News

Kolkata, Feb 3 (IANS) Security cover will be given to the enumerators for the next round of the census in the Left Wing Extremist (LWE) affected areas of West Bengal, a union home ministry official said here Thursday.”Enumerators could not complete the household counting process conducted between April and September in several villages of Maoist-affected districts, mainly West Midnapore, because of security reasons. So we have decided to give security cover to the enumerators, who would be conducting the population enumeration in those areas,” said Dipak Ghosh, Director of Census Operation, West Bengal.

“We have been discussing the issue with the state government and the district administration and a special measure will be taken to give security cover to the enumerators,” Ghosh told IANS on the sidelines of a media meet here.

The household counting process could not be completed in more than 300 villages because the enumerators refused to visit the areas apprehending Maoist attack and most of the residents were forced to flee their homes between April and June. Later the time was extended to September, but till then the process could not be completed in at least 160 villages.

Addressing the media before the launch of the population enumeration and revisional round, Deputy Registrar General P.K. Banerjee said: “Several new codes like barcodes, separate and divorced, categories of disabilities have been included in the questionnaire. Even a person will have the option of choosing ‘other’ apart from male and female in the sex category and sex workers and beggars will have different categories in the new questionnaire.”

An alliance partner - Child In Need Institute (CINI) - will organise workshop to train the enumerators to carry out the programme efficiently.

The population enumeration will be conducted between Feb 9 and 28 and revisional round between March 1 and 5. And after compiling the data, provisional results will be announced by the end of March, said Banerjee.