Demography, Census - its Features and Functions Demography: The term ‘Demography’ is derived from Greek words ‘demos’ meaning ‘the people’ and “grapho’ meaning ‘writing measurement’. The term demography was coined by Achille Guillard in 1855 . John Graunt is the real founder and father of demography, who wrote the book "Natural and Political observation made up on the bills of Mortality" in 1762. Demography is a statistical method of measuring the population growth over time and the effect of socio-economic-cultural influences on the population growth. Demography being a part of social statistics compares the birth rates, death rates, mortality and fertility rates and studies the economic and social structure. The sources of demography deals with a comprehensive study of policy information, economic development, and demographic transition of a nation. Different types of Demographic data: Different types of data are collected in demographic study. Those are categorised into several groups as follows — Stele RO reteset la + Number of members in a household, age, sex, marital status, number of languages known, mother language, residentship, social mobility, caste, religion ete Vital Statistics * Birth Rate, Death Rate, Mortality and Fertility Rate, Population growth, rate of survival in a particular disease etc Geographical Data * Geographical data is important to compare all the aspects of social and vital characteristics of the entire population to determine the socio- economic position of a country in the world economy. Education + Number of literate and illitearate persons, school drop outs at a certain age etc. aE aiw core « Employment status, occupation, duration of working hours, industry, annual income, place of work ete Others + Health issues, disability, consumption and expenditure of different goods, criminal justice etc. Sources of Demographic Statistics: There are three main sources of demographic statistics. Census or Complete Enumeration, Sample Enumeration or Surveys and Administrative records. If one source cannot provide reliable data, a combination of two or more sources are utilised to collect data for better policy and development planning for the country. The disadvantages of combining multiple data sources are - (a) the increasing cost of data collection (b) different sources may not provide the same results that may cause ambiguity among users. (1) Census: Census is a systematic method of measuring the population growth of a specific geographical region at a certain point of time. The process of census includes collection of data, processing, tabulation of the data, and publishing it through an authorised publication. Nearly all countries conduct census at a regular interval of time. Static aspect of census provides the demographic transition of the population at a certain point of time while dynamic aspect of census provides the trends of the population over the time. History of Census in India: * The earliest literature 'Rig-Veda' reveals that some kind of population count was maintained in during 800-600 BC in India. The celebrated 'Arthashastr' by ‘Kautilya' written in the 3rd Century BC prescribed the collection of population statistics as a measure of state policy for taxation. It contained a detailed description of methods of conducting population, economic and agricultural censuses. During the regime of the Mughal king Akbar, the administrative report 'Ain-e-Akbari' included comprehensive data pertaining to population, industry, wealth and many other characteristics. * The census in 1872 has been popularly labelled as the first population census of India. It was taken under British Viceroy Lord Mayo. However, the first synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten year. The Census of India 2001 was the fourteenth census in the continuous series as reckoned from1872 and the sixth since independence. The Indian Census is one of the largest adi istrative exercises undertaken in the world. « From 1941 to 1981 the population growth is very high (doubled) and from 1981 to 2011 there is a population growth declination. Although there has been a considerable drop in the birth rate, a much more rapid decline in the death rate had leads to the rise in the country’s population growth rate. * The year 1921 is known as ‘year of Great Divide’ Complete Enumeration or Population Census: Complete enumeration covers all the population in the specified area and shows the characteristics of the socio-economic status of a country. Though it is the best method of census as it is not only provides the demographic transition of a nation but also the socio-economic changes in the economy, the number of resources needed in the whole process often exceed the government budget. To raise the funding most of the countries conduct censuses once in every decade. Census cannot provide some relevant and very important information if conducted infrequently. Features of Census: Every steps of a census should be well-defined and carefully planned. Complete enumeration are divided into several phases — (a) Preparatory Work: Preparatory work is the most effective preliminary work that includes a process of planning, preparation and implementation which includes several activities — (i) securing the recommendations provided by the national and fernational regulatory bodies Cartographic work: numbering, mapping and making a list of the households of a certain area that would be covered in the enumeration process. (iii) Drafting the questions to be printed in the questionnaire and the schedules along with the instruction manuals to be sent with the questions, (iv) Preparing the calendars of communicating activities that involves consultation with the users (iv) Quality checking of the entire process (v) Recruiting and training enumerators (vi) Tabulating the data, processing the data The preparatory work is time consuming and cost effective as it reduces the cost of the complete census. In India cartographic work take 6 to 8 months prior to the census. (b) Census Legislation and Administrative Organisation: The Census organisation has the authorisation of accessing the list of households and questioning the target population. Census Act, 1948 was introduced in India to secure the information collected. This law appoints a supervisor, known as a Census Commissioner, to supervise the whole process of enumeration. The State governments may be appointed to cooperate with the Central government by taking charge of their respective states. This law is made to protect the secrecy of the data collected and also the identity and other personal details of the people involved in the whole process. In India, Ministry of Home Affairs are responsible for conducting Census. (c) Census Calendar: A calendar is a schedule of activities during pre-enumeration, enumeration, and post-enumeration process. The Census organisation has the authority to revise the calendar and change the pre-planned activities with an aim to conduct the whole process hassle free. The day and the time of starting the enumeration is also scheduled prior to the census. The point of time separating people born before and after it is known as “Census moment’. People who are born after census and dying before census moment will not be included in the current enumeration. In India, the sunrise moment of 1st March of every Census year is called Moment and around 20 days of March are fixed to conduct the Census. A revision of the completed enumeration may be followed in the same year if needed. (d) International ultaneity: In most of the countries the census are conducted in the years ending in either O or 1. In India census are conducted in the year ending in 1. The aim of international simultaneity is to compare the census of all the countries to get an idea about the demographic transition happening in the whole world. (e) Defined Time period: Census should be conducted at regular time intervals to compare the change in demographic transition over time. In India, census are conducted once in every decade. (f) De-facto and De-jure Enumeration: De-facto census tallies the people based on their local address which may not be their legal residential address. Most often de-facto enumeration considers the place where a person spends the night of the day. The legal residential address of a person is taken into consideration when the population census is counted on the de-jure basis. In the process of de- jure enumeration (count a person only according to the place of normal residence.) the risk of double count persists. (g) Data Processing: The processing of the census data plays a crucial role in the census. The census enumeration may be accurate but the census tabulation will not be accurate and useful unless the raw data are properly processed. (h) Evaluating and Analysing the Results: The extent of error can be estimated through the use of checks of the internal consistency of the data, by examination of the reasonableness of the results and by comparison of the results with data collected in other enquiries. It is the responsibility of the census organisation to analyse the census data so tabulated. This will help to indicate the long-term trends of certain characteristics of the population. The experts from outside the census organisation should also be invited or associated with the projects dealing with the analysis of census data. (i)Recording of Data: It is very essential to assemble complete records on the methodology of each census, an evaluation of the technique employed, and the costs. These records should be arranged very carefully and properly so that the information on any aspect of census may be easily traced out. (j) Publishing the data: Publishing the complied data by geographical area and other demographic variables (e.g. birth rate, death rate, mortality rate, fertility rate etc) is the last step of a census. Functions of Census: Census report compares demographic transition among different countries and helps in making changes in policies needed for the amelioration of socio-economic condition of the nations. (a) Census in planning administrative policy: Administrative policies are reformed for the socio-economic development of a nation based on the Census report of geographic distribution of population, size, and other aspects. Planning commission of a country uses the data on rural and urban population, age, sex, migrants, education etc and uses them to reform the policies on employment, migrants, education system etc. (b) Census in research and development: Census report on vital statistics, education, labour force and other characteristics are useful in economic and statistical research. (c) Sample survey from Census: Census provides the structure of the entire population of a geographical region. The selection of the sample for sample surveys are made from the complete enumeration. Census report is useful in education, business, and other industries as well with an aim to ameliorate of the present economic condition of each industry. (2) Sample Survey or Sample Enumeration: Sample enumeration extracts a small portion of data to represent all the characteristics of the whole population. This method is feasible in terms of cost and expenses and the duration of the whole procedure. Sample enumerations are best as it reduces the possibility of occurrence of sampling errors which may not be identified or removed from the complete enumeration. The major drawbacks of this process are — (a) The success of this process depends on the size of the whole population and the target population for sampling, methods applied to collect the information, number and quality of the questions asked in the questionnaire and schedules, the experience of the enumerators. (b) It may not show the same result as the complete enumeration which may cause ambiguity among the users. (3) Administrative Reports: One of the important sources of demographic data is administrative reports of ministry of health, education, and civil registration. The reliability of the data depends upon the completeness of the reports which are frequently monitored to add newly compiled data and removing errors if any. The advantage of the administrative reports is all the detailed information needed in the investigation are readily available. The major drawback is that one will need a legal authorization or permission to use the data. In addition, some personnel are hired to maintain the records, to make correction if needed, adding newly available data. It is necessary to check administrative records frequently to ensure that this is error free. Some of the developed countries have invented Civil registration to maintain the records and public security. Demographic data is an important record to understand the economic position of a nation in world economy and to make reforms for economic development of the same. Highlights of Indian Census 2011 * The 15th Indian Census was conducted in 2011 is of two phases, house listing(conducted during April -September 2010) and population enumeration(conducted in February 2011). « The Census 2011 is released in March 2011 and in this census the government launches the first time biometric information collection since 1872. * The motto of this Census 2011 is “ Our Census, Our Future”. ¢ India secured 2° rank in the world with the decadal growth of 17.70% ¢ Increase in Population growth from 2001 to 2011: Around 181 million * Total Population of India : 1,210,854,977 (Males: 62,32,70,258; Females: 58,75,84,719) Area(Km2) : Around 3.287 million Density per Km? : 382 Sex Ratio(per 1000 males): 940 females Literacy rate: 74% (Males: 82.1%; Females: 65.46%) Crude birth Rate: 21.8 Crude death Rate : 7.1 General Fertility rate: 81.2 Total Fertility rate : 2.4 Highlights of Jammu and Kashmir Census 2011: Approximate population: 1.24 crores Population Growth: 23.64% Literacy Rate: 67.16% Percentage of total population: 1.04% Density per Km2 : 56 Area(Km?) : 222,236 1. When a person is counted based on his legal residential address, the enumeration process is known as. (a) De-facto (b) De-jure (c) Sampling (d) Complete enumeration Answer Key: (b) 2. In India, the Census is held for every (a) 10 (b) 5 (c) 15 (d) 2 Answer Key: (a)