Patna, Jan 7 : The economic and caste based census commenced in Bihar on Saturday.
According to official sources, the census will be done in two phases in 38 districts.
First part of the census will comprise counting of residential plots covering twenty lakh families. After that, caste based census and economic status will be surveyed. The first phase will be take up from January 7 till January 21 while the second stage will be conducted from April 1 and will last till April 30.
The door-to-door survey would cover an estimated population of 12.70 crores in an estimated 2.58 crore households in 38 districts, which have 534 blocks and 261 urban local bodies.
The Rs 500 crores census exercise budget will be made available from ‘contingency fund’ scheme. If deemed necessary, the budget may be enhanced. The responsibilty of conducting caste based census has been entrusted to local administrative department for which special training is being imparted to employees.
The data will be collected digitally through a mobile application as part of the eight-level survey, from the panchayat to the district level.
The app will have questions about place, caste, the number of people in a family, their profession, and annual income. Census workers include teachers, Anganwadi, MGNREGA or Jeevika workers.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said the enumeration exercise will give enable the government to scientifically carry out development work in the state for the benefit of the poor.
The decision of a caste census was taken by the Bihar cabinet on June 2 last year.