| Description |
Housing Census 2001
The Houselisting Operations of Census 2001 saw a major shift in approach in that the emphasis this time lay primarily on the quality of living of households rather than just housing. This shift is in line with the UN recommendations on the broad aspects to be covered during a census enquiry. The data on various aspects of quality of living thrown up by the “Housing Census 2001” assumes greater significance as it provides a benchmark being the first census of the twenty first century and the third millennium. There are several new features in the Houselisting Schedule canvassed at the Census 2001. Besides improvements made in the format of the Houselist Schedule, the scope of enquiry at the Houselisting was considerably expanded with the inclusion of new questions. The number of items on which information was collected increased from twenty-two in 1991 to thirty-three in 2001. Houselist Schedule was not canvassed for houseless households. Similarly, particulars on amenities and assets available in the Institutional Households were also not collected while canvassing the Houselist. The responses for almost all the questions in the Houselist Schedule had pre-coded numeric options, which not only helped enumerators to record the response easily, but also facilitated quick data processing. The following new questions were added in the Houselist Schedule of the Census 2001:
The condition of residential or partly residential houses was categorized as good, livable or dilapidated (Column 8). (This was mainly based on perception of the respondents).
A question on the number of married couple(s) living in the household was introduced (Column 18).
Information was sought on the number of married couple(s) having independent rooms for sleeping (Column 19).
Information on whether wastewater outlet was connected to closed drainage or open drainage or no drainage (Column 24).
Availability of bathroom within the house (Column 25).
Availability of kitchen within the house (Column 26)
Availability of certain assets to the households, namely, radio/transistor, television, telephone, bicycle, scooter/ motorcycle/ moped, car/jeep/vans (Column 28-33).
Availability of banking services (Column 34).
Besides adding new questions, improvement was also made in the format of Houselist Schedule of Census 2001 by modifying certain questions as shown below:
For the first time, different uses of census houses were standardized and grouped into ten main uses and assigned code numbers (Column 7).
Plastic/Polythene was added in the list of materials of wall and roof of a census house (Columns 5 & 6).
‘Outside premises’ as a category of the location of drinking water source was further split up into two categories, namely, ‘near the premises’ and ‘away from the premises’ (Column 21).
‘No lighting’ was included as a response to the question on source of lighting along with other sources, namely, electricity, kerosene, solar, other oil and any other source (Column 22).
Specific information on availability of type of latrine within the house by the type of latrine was collected for all areas (Column 23). |
