THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS TALKS AGAINST CASTEIST HEGEMONY IN SOUTH ASIA

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS TALKS AGAINST CASTEIST HEGEMONY IN SOUTH ASIA INDIA AGAINST ITS OWN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

PalahBiswas On Unique Identity No1.mpg

Friday, June 4, 2010

ULTIMATE Assault: Census 2010 Reduced into Strategic market Research Initiative

ULTIMATE Assault: Census 2010 Reduced into Strategic market Research Initiative

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Live and Time- Three Hundred Eighty Four

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

Render unto Caesar
The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission is reported to have suggested including the teaching of the rudiments of human rights in the syllabus for schoolchildren....  | Read.. 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100604/jsp/opinion/index.jsp

I have been writing and speaking about the hidden agenda of Unique Identity Number Project headed by India Incs Boss south Indian Brahmin nandan Nilekani. Bharat Mukti Morcha has been campaigning for OBC Headcount which is pressed for OBC Political leaders as well as Developed communities like the Jats. Intelligentsia is VERTICALLY divided on caste line while Civil Society, NGOs and Media has launched a campaign against Caste Census with intense Hatred and Misinformation Tornado fueled by RSS and MNCs!

Indians may get their identity numbers earlier than expectedThe National Population Register is aiming to collect data by August 2011, reports MINT.

Indians may get their unique identity (UID) numbers earlier than expected.

The National Population Register (NPR) is aiming to collect biometric data of the country's entire population—on which the UID project, known as Aadhaar, is based—by August 2011.

"The NPR will start collecting biometrics from September," said R.S. Sharma, director general of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the project's nodal agency. "If they finish it in a year, we can allocate unique numbers sooner than envisaged."

Pronab Sen, the chief statistician of India, said the NPR's target of collecting biometric data in a year is realistic.

"It's quite possible. They have 2.5 million people on the job and have taken an additional five months this time to collate the data due to the NPR," Sen said.

UIDAI had earlier announced it will issue the numbers on UID cards to some 600 million Indians by 2014. The first set of numbers are to be allocated between August-February 2011.

The registrar general of India, which is creating the NPR as part of the decennial census, has an agreement with Aadhaar to source biometric data such as facial recognition features, fingerprints and eye scans from across the country. The data will be shared by Aadhaar and the census.

Canvassing and house-listing for the census began in April. It will cover all 29 states and union territories in a phased manner.

"For each state, the exercise is targeted to be completed within 45 days, to be followed by biometric and photography visits required for publication of the NPR," a home ministry official said.

The NPR has already collected biographical details of nearly 11.5 million Indians and the biometrics of around 6 million people in the coastal areas, another ministry official said. Both requested anonymity.

"The NPR for coastal areas will be completed in the remaining two states of Maharashtra and West Bengal by June 2010," the second official said.

The cabinet allocated Rs3,539.24 crore in March for creating the NPR.

Sharma said once the biometrics are collected, UIDAI will only have to process the date and make sure there is no duplication before allotting the UID numbers.

"The most uphill task of this entire project is getting the data (both biometric and demographic) of the entire country," he said.

"Once UIDAI has access to that data, the processing will not take much time," said another UIDAI official, who declined to be named.

The official added the current capacity of the UID servers to process the data is in line with the announced target—600 million numbers in four years. "However, the capacity can be scaled up easily to match the supply."

Sahil Makkar contributed to this story.

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/03222429/Indians-may-get-their-identity.html?atype=tp
Printable version: PDF | XLS Contact: Public Information Office 301-763-3691 About the data: These tables provide the total number of...
What: U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves will brief the media on the status of 2010 Census operations. One...
The U.S. Census Bureau is being recognized by Mediaweek, a leading advertising industry trade publication, for its 2010 Census advertising...
Their Public Service Announcements are Online and On Air The three surviving children of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta...
Qué: Robert Groves, director de la Oficina del Censo de los Estados Unidos sostendrá una rueda de prensa para hablar...
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/involved/index.php

The Indian Census is the most credible source of information on Demography (Population characteristics), Economic Activity, Literacy & Education, Housing & Household Amenities, Urbanization, Fertility and Mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Language, Religion, Migration, Disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data since 1872. Census 2011 will be the 15th National Census of the country.

Official Link : http://censusindia.gov.in/

This is the only source of primary data at village, town and ward level. It provides valuable information for planning and formulation of polices for Central & State Governments and is widely used by National & International agencies, scholars, business people, industrialists, and many more.

The delimitation/reservation of Constituencies – Parliamentary/Assembly/Panchayats and other Local Bodies is also done on the basis of the demographic data thrown up by the Census. Census is the basis for reviewing the country's progress in the past decade, monitoring the on-going schemes of the Government and most importantly, plan for the future.

Visit censusindia.gov.in for Frequently asked questions, Census 2011 countdown – Schedules, Manuals, Circulars / Presentations, Acts and Rules and online Data on Previous Census. The data collected will be subjected to de-duplication by the UIDAI. After de-duplication, the UIDAI will issue a UID Number.


    World Population Day | World Population Day 2009 | World Population Day – 11th July 2009 | World Population
    India Economic Survey Report 2008-2009 : Ministry of Finance
    incometaxindiapr.gov.in TDS Information In India, TDS e-Tutorial
    Report Misleading Advertisements On TV To ASCI
    www.punjabstatelotteries.gov.in Punjab March Lottery Results 2010

Now, an Economic Times report published today exposed further the Hidden Agenda as it turns to be ULTIMATE Assault: Census 2010 Reduced into Strategic market Research Initiative!

What can Census 2010 do for marketers and brands?

12 May 2010, 0641 hrs IST,Delshad Irani,ET Bureau
Year 2001 was a long time ago. Back then India had a prime minister with a flair for poetry and Kashmir had its first local elections in 23 years. That year, interest rates were cut to their lowest level since 1973 and India was inducted into an emerging economic power quartet called BRIC.

In 2001, IPL when expanded read Indian Poverty Line, India beat Australia (after a match-fixing scandal) in a test series and Kolkata was Calcutta. In 2001, TV show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' kept 'Slumdog Millionaire' dreams alive; over 290 million lived in India's urban cities, the mobile subscriber count stood at 45 million and 7 million were registered as Internet users. It was also the year India became the second nation in the world to register one billion people in its population. The first was China. Crossing the billion mark officially was particularly significant considering 2001 was the year India carried out its 14th decennial census.

A decade later, India is a story of opposites and complexities therefore earning the tag countries within a country. From a middle class with high disposable income, to one of the fastest growing mobile telephony markets, the Indian economy is certainly poised for consistent growth in the years to come.

Yet there's a widening chasm between richer and rich and poor. Amidst it all, India readies for its 15th decennial census , considered to be the biggest ever exercise of its kind in human history — with nearly 2.5 million officials aiming to classify a population of 1.2 billion people. Such a collosal national database is of obvious interest to the government as it becomes a framework for an array of policies and developmental work initiated at the centre and at state level. However, this categorisation that takes into account demographics, socio-cultural nuances, religion, urbanisation and economic parameters is also of immense interest to marketers of products and brands.

According to Rajeev Sharma, national brand planning director, Leo Burnett, "Clearly we need to look at the census much more sharply than we have been in the past. At the rate the country is evolving we need sharper definitions of Indian consumers ." For the first time, the census will incorporate information on parameters like ownership of mobile phones, computers, internet access, having treated or untreated drinking water and usage of banking services.

Data collected on these fronts could redefine projections and revolutionise the way marketers evaluate the potential of regions and segments. Second, and more importantly the census will be the foundation for the National Population Register (NPR) — all Indians above 15 years will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database.

Other stories in this section

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Other News

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/brand-equity/What-can-Census-2010-do-for-marketers-and-brands/articleshow/5919866.cms
Articles

Moolnivasi neglect of media caused our fall

GURNAM SINGH MUKTSAR

It was Oct.2005 when I asked my people to think of a collaboration between papers run by Dalits, Adivasis, Backwards, Sikhs, Muslims and Christians comprising 85% of India — victims of Brahminical thugs. I proposed a seminar on this. But my plea had no response. Everyone cries under the Brahmin blow. Everyone poses as a great missionary. But none ever bothered about the need for our own media. When we cry daily under the Brahminical terrorism, why we do not cry in one voice? We Bahujans have over 1,000 daily, monthly periodicals — in all languages, all over India and abroad. Everyone knows and every one writes on upper caste atrocities on us. Did we not shout against the 33% Women's Reservation Bill? We can create a thunder. We can manage a tornado. We can make a Tsunami for the tyrants. But only if we do it in one voice. Our oppressors have many papers, TV — the all-powerful media to daily torment, abuse, attack and kill us. But we have no such one single powerful media — though we are 85% and producers of everything Indian. (gurman.singh.muktsar@gmail.com)


Don't form political party with Brahmins — Dr. Ambedkar

"... I want to ask you, can the snake and the mongoose (ichneumon) live together. Can cat co-operate with the rat? Can elephant live with Birree? Certainly, if the snake wants to mix up with the mongoose (ichneumon) and make any profit out of it, it is mistaken. Mongoose will eat up the snake. Rat will be swallowed by the cat, if it wants to join hands with the cat. Similarly, elephant cannot enjoy the life with biree. Mongoose is the enemy of the snake, cat is the enemy of rat and birree is the enemy of the elephant. They cannot form a joint company.

... Baniya (money lender) will always try to extract what it can out of the poor people. Brahmins will never show sympathy for the poor Scheduled Castes and if they did so there will be nobody to serve them...

If we form a party of the snake, mongoose, cat, rat, elephant and birree, will the snake, rat and elephant be safe there? Certainly not. They will always be at the mercy of their masters.

Similarly if the Depressed Classes join hands with the Brahmins and form a political party, do you think that the Depressed Classes will be safe there?

I warn you to be careful and give fullest consideration to this matter. You should not be caught in the net spread by the Congress. If you think that by joining hands with the high caste people you will be better off, then you are mistaken. The high caste people will always suppress the Backward Classes. High caste people will enjoy the freedom whereas our people will remain as they are. Poor people can never flourish under the rich and must unite separately to achieve their purpose.

(Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches, Vol.17(III), p.441-442).


55 MILLION DOLLAR PLAN

Shocking silence on UP Dalit project : Zionist-Brahminist conspiracy

MOSES PARMAR, LUCKNOW

This refers to your shocking report about the zionist biological war to kill UP Dalits (DV May 1, 2010 p.8).

Newspapers in North carried reports of Melinda Gates visit and her meeting with Mayawati along with their support for an NGO called Saksham which has decreased the number of deaths in Rae Bareli district project (from thousands of children under 5 to just a few hundred). But her interview with the Hindu appeared only in the South.

I will call a meeting of doctors and discuss the DV report. I was also wondering why the rulers are secret about this? Why only the Hindu wrote about it? Saksham is not known here. Now that Gates have given money, they have become famous.

We agree that the lack of publicity to such a big project sounds suspicious and needs to be watched. Dr. Suresh is confident that Mayawati would not allow anything that would damage the Dalits of UP. We have some projects in Rae Bareli district and put the Saksham NGO under observation. Your suspicions may prove right. But we need time to see this and find some proof. The death of Dalit children under 5 is a major concern for us and we would be eager to find out what this foundation wants to do to reduce that. Our medical camps bring thousands of people for treatment and most of the children are malnourished. Our health workers have too much work on their hands. The article also does not explain the cultural change that Melinda Gates is suggesting.

*******************************

Another proof of Jews joining "Jews of India"

When a staggering $ 55 million project was announced for UP, why no UP paper or even Delhi paper announced it? Why only India's hard-core Brahmin daily headed by the arch enemy of Dalits/Muslims/Christians was given this exclusive interview by Melinda Gates? Why only this paper announced about such a project some 10 years back?

The "Jews of India" are in close collaboration with the Jews and admired the latter for their project of introducing AIDS to kill the African Blacks. DV has published over 100 reports on the AIDS which was a total zionist conspiracy against the Blacks.

Our people suffer from appalling ignorance, laziness, jealousy and lack of commitment. It is shocking that even highly placed medical doctors like Dr. Suresh Babu have not heard of such a gigantic scheme. Why the news was blacked out in UP papers? What is this mystery? Don't you get suspicious?

You can take it from us that the zionist-Brahminist clique wants to repeat the African experiment in India. UP was chosen because of its BSP rule.

The problem is we are not an alert people. Even when Babasaheb was poisoned and killed by the Brahmin wife not a single Dalit follower raised any voice.

The Hindu is the country's only Brahmin family media house which has not allowed any Dalit to enter. How did such a notorious anti-human media empire suddenly fall in love with Dalits? The answer can be found in the Mao's "law of contradictions". The Gates Foundation has played havoc in Africa — killing the Blacks by spreading AIDS. We have published many reports on this. We are sorry that even educated persons among us are not able to see through the Brahmin game. If this is the case how ordinary mortals, who form over 80% of the population, understand the Brahmin billiards game?

Why should the Brahmins approach the Gates and persuade them to come to India and select UP to conduct this experiment? Can't you make out the deep designs? We are telling you with our vast experience in the line. Our predictions made in DV have never gone wrong — EDITOR.


"Caste" finally wins: Will opponents of caste now commit suicide?

V.T. RAJSHEKAR

When we wrote our international award-winning book, Caste — A Nation Within the Nation, in London (2005), subtitled a "Recipe for bloodless revolution", Brahmins, the founders of the caste system, frowned on us and saw to it that the book was totally blacked out. The book, however, became a roaring success and went into fourth print with translations into Hindi and other Indian languages. Justice and Truth can never be suppressed.

Today, after five years, the Brahmin-controlled Govt. of India is itself surrendering to caste. See the power of caste. India is caste and caste is India. The poison-filled religion of Hinduism is a den of castes. Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and even Budhism are contaminated because the caste system.

KETAN DESAI & IPL MODI

Caste decides everything in "Hindu India". The prime minister, chief minister, judges, journalists every professional person is appointed on the basis of caste. And yet our casteist upper castes (Hindus), who became rulers on the basis of their caste, write in their toilet papers that caste is dead. Don't talk of caste.

And some of our own unthinking SC/ST/BCs join the Brahmins to condemn our caste book and Dalit Voice.

Take the case of the notorious Ketan Desai, the Gujarati Brahmin now jailed for taking bribes running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Take the top IPL cricket fraudster, the Marwari Lalit Modi. They all reached the pinnacle of "glory" because of their caste. The IT industry in Bangalore is the den of the Narayana Murthys and their cross-thread tribe.

The secret of the Brahmins "hating" caste is this: they went up the ladder and reached the pinnacle solely because of their caste. They don't want the other castes to use the same caste ladder to climb. Simple.

"GOD" KRISHNA CREATED CASTE

In the Brahmin "holy book", Bhagawad Gita, their god, Krishna, is made to say: Chaturvarnam Mayashristam, meaning the caste system (chaturvarna) was created by the god himself. What type of god he must be?

But the Brahmins say the caste must go. Daily we receive emails and letters threatening us not to promote the caste. But these Brahmins do not know that DV is not promoting the castes. Their own god has said that he did it.

Brahmins say they hate caste. Every Brahminical "national" toilet paper has written editorial against caste enumeration in census. Their complaint is caste will take India backward. "We must make India casteless" is their slogan. Wonderful.

As the victims of caste (to be precise, casteism or caste system) we will be the first to vote for the Brahmin slogan. If they are honest Brahmins, as the rulers and leaders of thought, they must set the model. The Brahmin Shankaracharis can inaugurate the death of casteism (Hinduism) by abandoning the temple archaka (priest) posts so far legally reserved to Brahmins. Then only we can believe the Brahmins. Not otherwise.

CASTE HELPED BRAHMINS

If the Brahmins hate the castes, which are the building bricks of the caste system (chatuvarna), they must dynamite this pyramid-shaped building.

But they will not. Because the caste gave them privileges to exploit and suck our blood. Brahmins will never agree to our demand to appoint non-Brahmins as temple archakas. The Supreme Court (the den of Brahmins like everything else) has itself ruled that the temple archakas must be only the Brahmin.

But the Brahmin never criticised the Supreme Court for upholding the caste. It means Brahmins like caste where it helps, but oppose when it eats into their privileged position.

So who is defending the caste? DV or the Brahmins?

India is today dying because of this poisonous caste system. Every thinker and scholar led by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had said it. Babasaheb was the first to plead for annihilation of caste as early as 1932 but the Brahminists rejected his plea.

Every appointment is made on the basis of caste. Our Khatri Sick PM favours only Brahminists. And yet these casteist Brahmins say caste must go. Census enumeration (2010) must not record caste.

INDIA'S MODERNITY IS HUMBUG

The 15% upper castes, who are ruling India by keeping the rest of the 85% in cancerous caste canker, are pushing country backwards. Our so-called modernity is bullshit. Our upper caste IT whizz-kids with their American pronunciation are a mere speck in this ocean of filth, stink, disease.

BJP SUPPORTS CASTE CENSUS

As this is written the Brahmin opposition to caste is dying as their own Brahmana Jati Party (BJP) is facing firing squad in the coming October Bihar Assembly election where they want to re-elect their darling, Nitish Kumar, also an OBC.

The Brahmins killed Mandal Commission for putting OBCs at 52% of the country's population and then brought down the V.P. Singh Govt. The Brahminical Supreme Court cut down the OBC population to 27% and mischievously put the cap on reservation at 50%.

INDIA NOT RULED BY SUPREME COURT

Already the total reservation for SC/ST/OBC quota has reached 49.5%. It means the 50% limit must be now broken.

The country is not ruled by the Supreme Court. The sovereignty lies with the people. If the Khatri Sick PM is against OBC enumeration and against scrapping the 50% limit, he must go.Sonia Gandhi, who gave the go ahead for caste enumeration must remove the Khatri Sick.

YADAVAS IMPRISONED BY God KRISHNA

The problem with the OBCs is they are more Brahminical than the best of the Brahmin. Yet they are kicked by the Brahmin. And the angry OBC retaliate by kicking the Dalits.

The Hindu god Krishna, an OBC cowherd, played the mischief in the Hindi heartland.

OBCS must join Dalits

This god was manufactured by the Brahmins to fool and win over the vast and powerful Yadav community on the stinking cowbelt and woo them back from Budhism. This cock and bull story of Mahabharat, in which Krishna (meaning Black) did the trick of permanently annexing the Yadavs into Brahminical fold, helped Brahmins to kill Budhism.

But even the thinking Yadavas to this day have not seen through the Brahminical game.

That is why the OBCs, who should have gone with Dalits, went with Brahmins who took them to hell.

LOHIA CONFUSED OBCS

Dalit Voice has hardly any readership among the OBCs though we always stood by them. In many areas of India OBCs are the principal oppressors of Dalits. And the Brahmins use this contradiction to their advantage.

Dr. Ambedkar stood by the OBCs but they went with Lohia, a Marwadi Bania, who tried to confuse the cowbelt Yadavas.

The Brahminists killed the Mandal through their Kamandal carried by the Sindhi Khatri L.K. Advani, who was finally kicked out by the very Brahminists, whom he bumlicked to became the PM.

Brahminists have killed this country by throwing its SC/ST/BCs (65%) and Muslim/Christian/Sikh — plus women of all castes — into this Hindu stinking pond. We will have no future if we continue to keep these anti-nationals in power.

The Moolnivasi Bahujans must develop the habit of thinking which they can do only if they cultivate the habit of reading.

******************************

V.T. RAJSHEKAR's

International award-winning book

CASTE — A NATION WITHIN THE NATION

is almost sold out.

A thesis for which Oxford University wanted to award a doctorate to the author.

Last few copies are available in English, Hindi and Kannada.

English edition 2007 (third edition)

Hindi pp.123 2006

Kannada pp.159 2005

Price Rs. 140 for each edition.

Write to Dalit Voice office.


BOOK REVIEW

Racketeers drive out top Gujarati writers

DR. NEERAV PATEL, AHMEDABAD

This is my response to the special number on Indian Dalit Literature published by the Journal of Literature & Aesthetics. Its editorial (Jan-Dec 2008) defines the Dalit literature in these words :

"Essentially it is a literature of protest, of dissent, of demythologizing, and of the search for the lost identity. It is also, in an important sense, the insider's report of the actual condition of deprivation, misery, indignity and exploitation in which the Dalit communities have been compelled to live for centuries."

The body of literature presented in this special number can be read in the light of the above as well as on the basis of another admission made in the same editorial:

"…we have tried to bring together some of the best Dalit writing in India, so that the readers can form their own judgments on the direction, quality and reason deter of this new body of writing."

Having been a Gujarati Dalit writer myself and not knowing about the inside story of the movement of Dalit literature in other languages/regions, my reference point will naturally be limited to my own language and my region.

Consultant Editor's role: In spite of the best intentions and understanding of the chief editor, Dr. S. Sreenivasan, and his team of advisory editors, I am disappointed to note that the consultant editor for Gujarati language has failed to abide by the editorial guidance while selecting the writers and even their creative works. It is an open secret now that the movement of Dalit literature is splintered into many groups based on ideology, internal casteism , specific motives, political affiliations and aspirations, literary leanings, careerism, and what not. To be neutral and objective and be free from any prejudice arising out of the above groupism and be guided only by the criteria set out in the editorial is a testing proposition for any consultant editor and Harish Mangalam woefully fails to live up to that.

Even a cursory look at the index page speaks volumes of his personal prejudices. To dish out the rewards for being his group members and accepting his babuship with blind faith, he has cared little for the scores of genuinely committed Dalit writers who are most militant, most protestant, most missionary, and writing both with great literary merit and in consonance of the essentials pointed out in the editorial.

The Brahmin lady mainstream poet Hasyada Pandya who is in the good book of the consultant editor is represented to the exclusion of real Dalit women writers like Chandraben Shrimali, Jasumati Parmar, Meena Kamle, and Usha Makwana. It is the same story: little-known poet B.B.Gaijan and mainstream writer Priyanka Kalpit are represented to the exclusion of stalwart Dalit poets and writers like Sahil Parmar, Raju Solanki, Shankar Painter, Neerav Patel, Babaldas Chavda, Bhi. Na. Vankar, Yashvant Vaghela, T.K. Makwana, Shamat Parmar, Kantilal Katil, Purushottam Jadav, Dan Vaghela, Mohan Parmar, Raman Vaghela, Chandu Maheriya, A.K.Dodia, Dashrath Parmar and many more.

Joseph Macwan excluded: Let us refer to Mangalam's article in which he writes: " the first Gujarati Dalit short story is written by the eminent Dalit writer Joseph Macwan." This most celebrated and Akademi award winning Dalit writer is, however, not here just because he couldn't tow the sarkari babu-cum- consulting editor's line and thus fell from his grace.

One can also observe the same writer representing several categories at a time and thus wasting the valuable space provided by the chief editor and denying representation of vast variety of creative talents to the readers: the consulting editor himself is represented in 4 categories – article, short story , poetry and interview. It is the same with Dalpat Chauhan, Praveen Gadhvi, Arvind Vegda representing more than one category at a time. Instead, the more discerning and less prejudicial consulting editor could have easily accommodated many more writers and made the selections more representative and rich with variety if this repetition had been avoided.

To everybody's surprise, the self-glorifying consultant editor has even managed to exhibit his photographs on 4 different pages : on consulting editors' page and again on p.109, p.115, p.153.

It is an irony of the state of affairs that the prestigious journal is called not only of literature but also of aesthetics. It is no point in comparing the literary merits of those who are included and those who are excluded. It is also no point in comparing the texts and translations. But suffice it to say that the editors of mainstream magazines are many a time misguided by the only liaison they have and fell innocent victims to their reliance on the singular source.

(neerav50@yahoo.co.in)


Mass conversion & English can save India

KESHAV SHET REVANKAR, UAE (GULF)

How long can we go on ranting about Brahmins. From last 4,000 years to the present day the equation remained same —that is Kshatriya-Brahmin-Bania nexus. Now it is state-temple-corporate complex. This was made official later in Bhagvad Geetha Chapter 18-44 which says "shudras are born to carry out their duty of serving upper castes." Go to website nirmukta.com and take prints of articles written by one Dr.Prabhakar Kamath. He has demolished Brahminism in a thorough- clinical manner, especially in the articles of March & April. Unless Dalit leaders and intellectuals think of drastic radical steps the problem remains. For example there should be mass conversion to Christianity and making English language compulsory.

You are right. The problem is how to make the Truth you stated known to the slaves of India. We have no mass media of our own. DV is a peanut before the Brahminical monster media. How to solve this problem without which the oppressed millions will die without ever getting a chance to know the Truth. "Know the Truth and Truth shall make you free" (Bible) — EDITOR.


How Muslims are treated

SHAFEE AHMED

Muslim women when they are under veil (or burqua), they are mostly despised if they are seemingly poor. Most poor people live in shattered life, be it a Hindu, Muslim or Sikh. Should they be despised? It so happened to me, while I had to travel to Bangalore from Madras by train, along with my burqua-clad wife. Despite having a valid reserved tickets, the seats were occupied by open ticket travelers, the so-called Hindu elite. When I politely claimed the seats, my request was turned down and was dragged to an altercation call names, "You Muslims". By the time the ticket collector arrived, the train was entering Katpadi Junction, that is the time for two-third of my journey. If this is the case with a widely traveled man like me, imagine what would be the condition of lone woman traveller with Islamic identity. Still the stigma of upper and lower caste and religious bigotry do exist even after 62 years of "independence". It's necessary to inform that Muslims had greatly struggled for freedom of India much before the advent of Gandhi and Muslims have been martyrs in the freedom struggle. (shafeeahmed8@gmail.com)


Hope in India's 2 Bahujan Gurus

USMAN KHALID, SECRETARY-GENERAL, RIFAH PARTY OF PAKISTAN, LONDON

Until the advent of the British Raj, the sub-continent of South Asia had no name; its parts had names — Ganges Valley was known as Hind, Indus Valley as Sindh, the Brahmaputra Valley as Bengal and the South as Deccan. The connection between them was established by epics — the Mahabharata linked Hind with upper Sindh (Punjab) and the Ramayana linked the Ganges Valley to the South all the way to Lanka.

But these epics were tales of conflicts between the invading Aryans. In the epics the indigenous peoples were called villains.

HINDUS LOVE JEWS

Hinduism called the indigenous peoples as evil deserving of every excess and injury. Hinduism has not changed despite 1,000 years of Muslim and British rule. Hinduism is the nemesis of every other faith in the world today which are more or less egalitarian. Perhaps the only faith that comes close to Hinduism is the modern-day Zionist Judaism. Jews like Brahmins are both 'chosen people' given to cheat, betray and torment all the other peoples. But the Jewish world did not overlap the Hindu world until the 20th Century.

Now the alliance of Jews and Brahmins is a formidable force as both employ ruses and stratagem as the prime instrument for getting their way.

HINDUISM IMPOSED ON BAHUJANS

The indigenous peoples of India now call themselves Bahujans which means the majority people. After the Aryan conquest they suffered for thousands of years as serfs of conquering Aryans who imposed on them a religion called Hinduism that robbed them of their identity and their faith. Apartheid and untouchability are not just evil practices, the varna (caste hierarchy) system is an article of faith — perhaps the prime article of Hinduism. Hatred is the religious duty of every practicing Hindu. The situation of the Bahujan is like the serfs.

That was until the advent of Muslim rule over South Asia, which lasted 800 years. Under Muslim rule, repression of the Bahujan became impossible as the non-working priest caste (Brahmins) became impoverished and the caste of fighters could survive only as soldiers in the service of the new rulers. The Bahujan flourished under Muslim rule because they were workers and were eventually employed as fighters by the Muslims as well as the British. In the 17th Century the Mughal Empire in India accounted for 25% of the GDP of the world. No wonder it was so much sought after by European colonial powers and ended up being a 'Jewel in the British Crown'.

BRITISH LIES

The British started with the assumption that conflict must have existed between the Hindu and Muslims. The British history claimed that Hindus were slain for disputing with 'Muhammedans', generally prohibited from worshipping and taking out religious processions, their idols were mutilated, their temples destroyed, they were forced into conversions and marriages, and were killed and massacred by drunk Muslim tyrants. Thus empire scholars, went on to produce a synthetic Hindu versus Muslim history of India, and their lies became history.

BAHUJANS START BREATHING

The Hindus quickly embraced the British view of history for two reasons:

1) it helped them gloss over the main feature of their society – caste apartheid – and articulate a Hindu view of history to build a Hindu nation, 2) demonisation of Islam and Muslims provided a cause celebre as well as cement for the new Hindu nation.

However, the British also recognised that the Bahujan were not Hindu. While the Muslims were repressed, the Bahujan were given a leg up by the British rulers. The social as well political gap between the Muslims and the Bahujan narrowed.

DR. AMBEDKAR ROLE

OBCs were given Separate Electorate and reserved seats in education and employment. In 1932, under the Communal Award, the British offered the Bahujan as well as the Muslims Separate Electorate for provincial and central legislatures. M. A. Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, accepted Separate Electorate but the leader of the Bahujan, Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, first accepted it but was then forced to resile from his stand under pressure from the 'fast unto death' trick of M.K.Gandhi. That made a crucial difference to the life of Bahujan in India. With advent of Islam and Christianity in South Asia, India was in any case divided into two nations — the Hindus and the Untouchables — as the Muslims were also untouchable for the Hindus. In 1932, India was polarised afresh into two nations –Muslims (who got separate electorate) and non-Muslims (who all accepted Joint Electorate with the Hindus).

Politically, the Bahujan identity got assimilated into Hindu identity.

BJP'S ANTI-MUSLIN STAND

India was partitioned in 1947 on the basis of the principle of 'majority rule' between the two nations that crystallised in 1932. Had the Bahujan accepted the Communal Award, one nation would have been 'Hindu' and the other 'non-Hindu'. Hindus may have enjoyed majority only in a few princely states but not in any province of British India. The partition may indeed have been avoided.

Indian historians have been at great pains to stress that it was the Muslims who made the societal polarisation a communal problem. But that is not true. Societal polarisation existed in consequence of caste apartheid and there was little opposition from the Hindus to Minto-Morely Reforms of 1905 that introduced Separate Electorate. It was much later that M.K.Gandhi realised that Muslim-Bahujan alliance would reduce the upper castes to a minority. It was he who made opposition to Separate Electorate the focal point of Congress politics. To establish and maintain Hindu-Bahujan Alliance has ever since been the focal point of Congress politics. However, Bahujan parties have been growing in maturity and self-confidence and won electoral victory in many states. But the Hindu leaders have seen that a combination of: 1) crumbs off the Varna Hindu table called reservation, 2) corrupt Bahujan leadership, and 3) share in political power, is a powerful recipe to keep the Bahujan in line. But with the rise of the BJP the focus has shifted to the Muslims once again. The BJP sees the Muslims, who are as numerous as the varna Hindus (each about 15% of the population) as the main problem.

The BJP competes with the Congress Party, albeit with different measures and words, in persecution and subversion of Muslims to impoverish and disempower them. The Muslims are now at the bottom of the socio-political pile. Post Gandhi politics is once again remarkably similar to pre-Gandhi politics. Once again the religious identity of Bahujan is an issue and political alliance with the Muslims is on offer.

BAHUJAN GURUS

I am personally acquainted with two Bahujan gurus who have articulated solutions to this problem. Dr. Kancha Ilaiah said it in his book, Why I am not a Hindu. He asserts that the Bahujan cannot escape the rigour of caste apartheid in India until they embrace an egalitarian faith. Dr Ilaiah is not a Dalit; he is from the OBC. His assertion brings home the point that somewhat less contempt or a little less apartheid and discrimination is not a favour or a privilege for which one should walk out of solidarity of all the untouchables. The SC/ST and OBCs are all non-Hindu; he uses the word Dalit Bahujan as the common name and platform for all non Hindus which also include Muslims, Christians and the Sikhs.

The other Bahujan Guru — V.T. Rajshekar — is also from the OBC. Yet, he has been articulating the voice of Dalits in fortnightly Dalit Voice for over quarter century. He has led the way towards two revolutionary political ideas. He wrote a book on "caste identity" in which he asserts that it is impossible to 'abolish' untouchability because it is a social practice without legal underpinning. He urges the Bahujan to consolidate their "caste identity" and walk away from political parties organised and led by varna Hindus. His call and campaign has borne fruit. Now there are Bahujan parties in every state of India which has made it impossible for the Hindu-led parties — the Congress and the BJP — to rule alone at the centre or in any state of the Indian Union.

MUSLIM NAME FOR GRANDSON

His second revolutionary idea answers the question raised by Dr. Ilaiah. He himself followed the path of conversion and embraced Budhism but found that it made little difference. But when he named his grandson as Tahir Shetty – Tahir is his name and Shetty is his caste - it made a difference. Tahir is perceived by his class fellows to be a Muslim. He insists that he is not. But unlike his father and grandfather no one sees him to be a Hindu either. His identity has changed although his religion remains the same as that of his father and grandfather.

To walk out of the fold of Hinduism, one does not have to convert; one merely has to discard one's Hindu name. The logic is simple. If the Bahujan are not Hindu, why should they have Hindu names?

CHANGE OVER TO URDU NAMES

It appears that just as the Hindus embraced Bahujan gods as lesser gods, and Bahujan as children of lesser gods, as a favour done to conquered people, they did them another favour allowing them to have Hindu names. This might have been celebrated by the Bahujan 2,000 years ago as 'generosity' of the Aryans; it has since become serious handicap. The Muslim rulers also saw the Bahujan as Hindu because they had Hindu names and Brahmin priests presided over their rituals even though they are disallowed to enter Hindu temples or interact with the Hindus socially.

Religious and political matters have impacted each other more in the South Asian sub-continent than anywhere else. The numbers of Bahujan – who are 65 % of the population of India – rises to 85% if the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are included. They are not a minority that they need the protection of 'Separate Electorate'. They do not need 'reservation' that splits the Bahujan and pitch them against each other. They need their separate identity. They have a choice to embrace an egalitarian faith but that may be a step too far for many. Identity is a political issue and to treat it as a religious issue creates problems. Dr Ambedkar considered conversion to Sikh faith but was not ready to embrace 5 Ks. He eventually embraced Budhism and it made little difference as he did not change his name. But the Bahujan can have Muslim, or rather Urdu names. There are Muslims with Christian names all over the world; many Christians have Muslim names in Pakistan.

If the Bahujan took Muslim first names and kept their caste as their last name, they would preserve their identity and yet walked out of the Hindu identity.

There is pressing need for it because Hindu India has consolidated an alliance with Zionism. Surely, that is not what the majority – the Bahujan – want. They must see the danger and the opportunity. The leader of the Muslims in pre-partition India – Jinnah – pleaded with the Bahujan leaders to accept the Communal Award in 1932. That would have given the Bahujan their separate identity. Now the Rifah Party of Pakistan is urging them to establish their separate identity by discarding Hindu first names and pick one in Urdu language.

An alliance between Muslims and Bahujan in the sub-continent is on offer again.


Brahmin love for marxism

SUKANTA MONDAL, L-4/2-SARAT PALLY, MEDINIPUR - 721 101

A seminar on "Translation of Dalit literature" was held at the Vidyasagar University, Medinipur, on March 23-24, 2010. It was organized by the English Dept. of the University and attended by lecturers from Delhi, Ranchi, Viswabharati, Jadavpur, North Bengal, Burdwan Universities. Dalit literature is gaining ground in various Indian languages. Bengal was in an advanced position in education, culture or industrial development during the British period. But common educated Bengalis under the influence of Brahministculture are still fond of basking in that glory and project themselves as pioneers in "progressive thoughts".

Calcutta upper castes (Brahmins, Kayasths and Baidyas) from East Bengal hate Dalit literature. They like Ghosh, Bose, Mitra, Sanyal, Guha etc. Behind that periphery they do not think that there are any persons with literary acumen. Marxism has made them all the more elitist and all-knowing. Even today they believe that only "class struggle" led by communists would be able to cleanse the society. They don't like discussions on caste or Brahminism. In such a state, a university-level seminar on Dalit literature is no doubt a matter of interest. Dalit literature is an all-India phenomenon and is already characterized with some common attributes. Bengal on its own cannot break that definition. Among its characteristics — it has its special aesthetics; the so-called down and out-caste people have been writing about their own sufferings, identity, revolt against Brahminism. It is more a writing of empathy and not of sympathy.

The organizers tried to distort the Dalit literature with their own colourings of bhadralok marxian culture. They included in Bengali Dalit literature some writings of Brahmin writers. From the speech of Prof. Achintya Biswas (Jadavpur University) who may be called a renegade in Dalit literary movement, it did not become clear what has been happening in present Bengali Dalit literature though he journeyed through Afro-American literature. Anil Gharai (by birth SC) is no doubt a powerful and realistic writer in portraying the life of the Dalits. But he supports communism not Dalit movement. UGC has sanctioned over Rs. 10 lakhs for English translation of Dalit literature of Bengal. This money is for distribution among some chosen translators.


Caste prejudice in Income Tax Dept. killing Dalits

ABHIJEET KUMAR, 11-SPRING'S COUNT-I, NAVARACHANA UNIVERSITY ROAD, OFF VASNA-BHAYALI ROAD, BARODA - 391 410

Reservation in India is as old as Hinduism and its spirit, casteism. Earlier the upper castes reserved certain "respectable" professions to themselves and menial jobs to our people. After the British, a small percentage of these 'respectable' jobs were reserved to lower castes on selective basis. However, the present form of reservation policy was provided in the entire British India in 1943, when Dr. Ambedkar was the Labour Minister. Subsequently enabling provisions were incorporated in the constitution. Since then 60 years have elapsed but no study is conducted to find out if the policy of reservation has achieved, it's intended objectives or not.

IGNORANCE OF FACTS

Both the parties — Hindus and SC/STs —are happy having "ignorance of facts" as their ally. Rarely anyone from the most vocal strata of reserved category i.e. civil servants and politicians has ever asked for such a study. Probably they are afraid that they will be the first ones to be exposed. Anti-reservationists are happy because they can keep on harping on the unfairness of the policy. They can give baseless arguments and still get away by saying whatever they want. This is not a question of winning or losing arguments but it's intrinsically related to the very survival of Dalits and eventually humanity.

It is in the interest of justice to know the truth. If the policy is achieving what it was intended for then let us hasten its implementation to bring a quick end to reservation. And if it has not achieved its objective then either modify or change if need be, to provide impetus to bring about intended effects.

(1) Reservation Act

Reservation in the last 6 decades has brought perceptible changes in the lives of many SC/ST people and at the same time thrown many challenges. However, the way reservation is implemented, has ensured its inefficiency and ineffectiveness, some of which are discussed here.

Direct recruitment to the posts of Group A & B, is done by the UPSC and the state PSCs in most of the cases. Since the PSCs are constitutional bodies, we can safely presume that the quota at the entry level is filled by them. However, posts for which recruitment is done either by in-house agency or some other agencies cannot be relied upon for their objectivity.

TOOTHLESS BODY

The very fact that Central Govt. and some states have come out with special recruitment drives to fill the reserved vacancies, mostly Group-C posts, itself is good enough proof to hold that everything is not fair.

Since the reservation policy is implemented through the executive fiat and overseen by the National Commission for SC/ST, which is an ineffective/ toothless body.

Reports prepared by the Commission are rarely presented to parliament and/or acted upon by the Govt. In 2008, the Delhi High Court said at least 20% of the posts reserved for STs have been gobbled up by the non-ST candidates and the govt. is helpless to do any thing. Cases of fake SC/ST certificates are too many.

The National Commission for SC/ST has already filed over 20 cases against serving bureaucrats who owe their present status to their bogus SC/ST certificates.

In fact, the whole reservation policy is at the mercy of the people sitting at the top, majority of them being upper castes. The offenders are rarely punished. Hence the need for an urgent enactment with well designed reward and punishment provisions. Otherwise, we will be having a facade of reservation policy without any real benefits going to the society.

(2) Reservation in Promotion

The issue of reservation in promotion (RIP) is a very serious issue and we can't deal with it in a casual manner.

Why do we want RIP? Universal reply is we are not represented well at the level of Addl. Secretary and Secretary. So we do not participate in policy formation and our interests are not being taken care of.

In our entire service career we work as actors at the direction of others but rarely get chance to work as directors.

What is the root cause of this anomaly.

Has any of the reserved officers been denied promotion on flimsy ground or kept out of promotion under some deliberate policy or has been discriminated against? Have we come across a situation where a large no. of officers perceive that promotion process is discriminatory and they approached the Federation or any other agency for redressal of their grievances? Our response to these queries will determine what course of action is required to be taken.

CHIEF COMMISSION OF I.T.

Quota is more or less filled in group A & B posts at the entry-level and all the selected candidates get time-scale promotions on time without any discrimination and the RIP is also followed up to the lowest post in group A i.e. up to ACIT but not beyond. In our department, we are represented quite well up to the post of CIT. However, one rarely finds any CCIT from reserved category. If non-representation at CCIT onwards posts is what the Federation is worried about then we should spend our energy to find out the cause and remedy of the same. Secondly, quota is filled at the entry level then why the quota figures for group A & B posts are always less than the prescribed limits. It is never 15% in the case of SCs but between 12 to 13%. Why it is so?

If we take average age of general and reserved officers, we will find that the average age of a reserved officer is invariably 4 years (approx.) more than that of a general officer.

SC/ST officers retire earlier than their counterpart. So the quota figures will always be less than 15%. Since Sr. SC/ST officers have already retired, the question of their promotion does not arise.

This is the precise reason that we are not represented at higher level as well as quota figures are always less than the prescribed percentage. This problem is not the result of any policy but the malady crept in due to age relaxation at the entry level. Take the civil list and find category- wise average age of any batch. You will have something like this (See table)

Category    Av.Age        Av.Ser.    Entry%      Strength    Present %

General         27                 33           78           2574       80.14

Reserved      31                 29           22            638       19.86

Total                                                                   3212

MISCHIEF OF AGE RELAXATION

Average age of reserved officer is pushed upwards due to age relaxation at entry level. So what is the remedy to correct this malady?

Doing away with age relaxation at the entry level will be the most effective method. We have to educate public and more particularly the reserved category to make them aware of the adverse consequences of this lollypop. Age relaxation, to start with, was necessary but now the situation has changed and more than enough young candidates are available at least for Civil & PSU services.

If age relaxation is withdrawn immediately then it will catch reserved candidates unaware. So a phased withdrawal may be done.

Hence age relaxation is the cause of this disease. The malady is to be treated by swallowing a bitter pill (removing age relaxation) than by palliatives (RIP).

Pursuing RIP for its illusionary benefits will seriously hamper our interests.

(3) Common Interview Board

The SC/ST candidates are awarded less marks in interview as compared to general candidates. Interview board consists of majority non SC/ST members. Member's personal and social prejudices play a major role in awarding marks to the interviews and more particularly when they are well aware of the background of candidates.

Secondly, various courts have decided that a candidate competing on his own will not be counted for quota. This forces interviewers from general category not to award marks generously to reserved candidates else they will come in the general list which will reduce the number of posts available to general candidates.

CASTE PREJUDICE

The special board constituted for the reserved category candidates consists of four members of general category (GC) and one of reserved category (RC). Thus the constitution of the board itself is discriminatory and a lone member is made to give legitimacy to the whole proceedings. How can a member overwhelmed by the majority be expected to have any say in the interview? He is neither in a position to influence the proceedings nor to protect the interest of the RC candidates. On the contrary, the member simply presides over the funeral procession of reservation policy. In fact the single member does not only give the legitimacy but divests off the entire reserved class and critics from protesting against the discriminatory proceedings.

This can be corrected by having common board for all the candidates. The board should not come to know the background of any candidate and all the candidates should be interviewed, roll number-wise —not by category. This will force the board members to award marks objectively.

Secondly, the weightage of interview marks is very high. It should be reduced to 5% of the written test marks to nullify the effect of personal prejudices or subjective judgment of the Board members.

(4) Quota within Quota

It is a fact that some SC/STs have benefited from the reservations. In a way they were ahead of the race. These differences get magnified when there are a few number of castes and the benefits derived by one of them is disproportionately larger than its share in category population. Cases of Andhra Pradesh and Punjab are before us.

MALAS CORNER JOBS

In AP, over 80% of SC population is Mala and Madiga. Though both are equal but majority of PSU/govt. jobs have gone to Malas. Madigas think that Malas have gobbled up their share and started agitating for quota within quota.

Malas advanced the same logic as advanced by the upper castes to justify their large share in govt. i.e. merit. The division in Malas and Madigas is complete.

Similarly Ravidasis and Valmikis are divided in Punjab.

Valmiks said there were 184 IAS from SC category of Punjab, out of whom 180 were Ravidasis and only 4 IAS from Valmikis. In these two states, reserved category has been divided completely.

In Rajasthan, Gujars are fighting the powerful Jats who gobbled the major share of OBC quota.

Quota within quota seems to be the best solution.

Though the size of cake cannot be increased but efforts could be made to make it appear larger for the people left behind. It can be safely presumed that people entering govt. /PSUs at the level of B-grade & above and retired from A-grade have achieved a reasonable level of social and economic status. Though they cannot be compared with Hindus but within reserved castes, they are ahead of the rest. Otherwise also, second generation children have not suffered the kind of social indignation and condemnation as suffered by their parents or other children.

(5) Creamy Layer

So to leave the field for non-creamy layer, children of creamy layer should not be given automatic reservation. It means the first priority should go to non-creamy layer.

However, creamy layer off-springs should be considered only when suitable / eligible candidates are not available from the non-creamy layer. This will have the effect of killing three birds with single stone.

POLITICAL POWER AS MASTER-KEY

So Dalits from Group A must be magnanimous and ask the govt. to bring the above policy into effect.

Political power is the master key, is the one quote of Babasaheb often misquoted. Probably he was oblivious of the fact that his words will be taken literally by Dalit politicians without understanding the spirit behind it.

Without financial security and strong economic shoulders we cannot progress. So we have to change our discourse from "political power is master key" to economic power is the greatest liberator.

The population of India is about 120 crores out which Dalits alone are 30 crores. As against this there are hardly 190 lakh govt. jobs including all grades and 80 lakh private sector jobs. So there are 270 lakh jobs altogether.

Presuming Dalits are represented everywhere in proportion to their population then also around 60 lakh of them are employed.

Again presuming a family of 5 then we can optimistically say that only 3 crore Dalits are leading a decent life. What is happening to the rest?

There are 25 crore Indians suffering with malnutrition and 5,000 children dying of hunger daily i.e. one child per 15 seconds. Who are they? Dalit demography is shameful. So, we have to give first priority to education and economic development. They must wait.

[The author is a senior IT officer]



 
http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/june2010/articles.htm
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Marketing strategies: How to engage a customer

Consumers , more now than ever, are inundated with marketing messages nearly every moment of their waking day. Therefore they are becoming more selective and demanding of the messaging with which they choose to engage. Their attention span and willingness to interact with marketing continues to decrease. The result is the constant increase of complexity of marketing , since any marketer is tremendously challenged by the increasing number of marketing moments and the decreasing ability to truly engage a customer.

Many marketing agencies try to meet this "Modern Marketing Conundrum" by either solely focusing on satisfying the ever-changing demands of their clients or by building the most outrageous and disruptive marketing ideas without data and an insight-driven foundation. What is common is the lack of a consumer-centric operating system that any great marketing services company needs to solve this conundrum.

The foundation of our operating principle was proprietary research to understand how consumers engage with any marketing message, independent of the communication channel. We wanted to determine the duration of the particular moment of opportunity to capture the average consumer's attention in today's environment, broken down by different media channels, industry categories, and segment attributes . Our goal was to build a global norm database to help us better evaluate and understand our work across all key channels.

From a research perspective we needed to answer a few critical questions: How much time does a consumer allow a marketing element before he/she decides whether or not it matters to them? What are the differences in the decision times across all media and marketing channels? Across all categories? Across all consumer attributes (e.g., age, income)? How are they making their decisions on what matters and what doesn't matter to them, and what are the implications for brands?

Experience has taught us that every one of our ads faces two critical moments when exposed to a consumer. 1) The Lean Moment: the point at which the consumer decides either to engage (lean in) or disengage (lean out) with the ad. 2) The Decision Moment: the point at which the consumer makes a personal assessment of whether the ad's message resonates with them (matters) or whether it rings hollow (does not matter).

The time lapse in between the Lean Moment and the Decision Moment is the window of opportunity where we can influence the decision — the time period we call the "6.5 Seconds That Matter."

It is the "6.5 Seconds That Matter." It is the foundation of the inseparable union of accountability and creativity enabling us to do breakthrough and profitable work for our clients.

BASED ON THIS METHODOLOGY, WE CONDUCTED A GLOBAL RESEARCH PROJECT IN WHICH WE INTERVIEWED CLOSE TO 2,000 CONSUMERS.

Our results are now the cornerstone of our operating system:

The average weighted time that consumers will give us before making their decision is 6.5 seconds across all media channels

The average percentage of marketing elements in which consumers:

Leaned in and decided it mattered to them was around 45%

Leaned out was approximately 28%

Leaned in and decided it did not matter to them was nearly 27% by Media Channel

The two highest-scoring channels (TV and OOH) provide vastly different windows of opportunity. Consumers allot TV ads more time to "matter" after they lean in (11.1 seconds) than OOH ads (2.9 seconds).

TV ads achieve the highest "Leaned In & Mattered" score (53%), followed by OOH & Print (47%), Web (42%), and Radio (40%).

CPG-HHP & Restaurant ads achieve the highest "Leaned In & Mattered" scores (56% and 49% respectively). Communication & Insurance ads were the lowest (40% and 32% respectively).

Older consumers provide us with a bit more time to achieve a "matters" decision than their younger counterparts (7.3 seconds vs. 6.4 seconds), while the younger consumers require earlier engagement.

Michael Fassnacht, Global Chief Strategy Officer Draft FCB. He is scheduled to speak at Cannes 2010
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/brand-equity/Marketing-strategies-How-to-engage-a-customer/articleshow/6001262.cms

Times of India reports:
The government, keen to meet its ambitious plan of allocating unique numbers to all residents, is likely to set up a high-powered committee to ensure coordination among agencies dealing with the exercise.

Sources said the move aims to avoid duplication and confusion between the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and home ministry's National Population Register (NPR) during the census exercise.

There are apprehensions in the government that UIDAI's proposal to collect data from multiple registrars -- agencies of central and state governments like rural development department, PDS department, LIC, LPG agencies and banks -- along with NPR may lead to "huge" duplication.

While the Cabinet committee on UID has decided to use all 10 fingerprints, an iris scan and a photograph of the person for unique identification to enhance accuracy, it is argued that with UIDAI having multiple registrars and several enrolment points, the "accuracy" aspect may be diluted.

UIDAI has argued that in a country with a huge population, a mix of biometric and photographic record is necessary to ensure reliability of information.

With Cabinet giving its in-principle approval to guidelines for setting up the UID database, the committee will help in smooth rollout of unique numbers to billion-plus residents.

With the government keen to ensure that the crores being pumped into welfare schemes reach the `aam aadmi', UIDAI intends to issue unique numbers to the poor and children on priority and without any charge.

As the authority intended to help identify beneficiaries of UPA's flagship schemes, children between ages 5 and 15 will be included in view of the ambitious Right to Education.

Under the scheme, the government is aiming for 600 million users by 2014.

In the government's report card on Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed the UID project a platform for direct transfer of benefits and subsidies to the poor.

Describing the project as an important instrument to expand financial inclusion, the PM said, "The Unique ID project is progressing well and I am hopeful that the first set of `Aadhaar' numbers will be issued between August 2010 and February 2011."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Coordination-panel-for-smooth-rollout-of-unique-numbers/articleshow/6000260.cms

The Mint Report for 01 June 2010

Auto sales stay on the fast lane; markets break a four-day rally on more bad news from abroad.

The government is all set to start the process of identifying families below the poverty line. Pilot projects are going to start next month in 260 villages across the country. We've learnt that the villages chosen are from all across the country. And they include four from every agricultural-climatic region. The government expects to get results from the pilot projects by March of next year. Its full-scale survey of below the poverty line families will then begin in April.

At the heart of the proposed survey of India's poor is a disagreement over numbers. India's Planning Commission estimates the country's BPL population at 62.5 million. But the rural development ministry says that number is more like 107 million. The ministry set up a panel to resolve the conflicting numbers. Now its pilot census of below poverty line families will put that panel's criteria to the test.


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May has been a good month for auto sales. India's top car makers did good business, with Maruti Suzuki's local sales increasing 27% to more than 90,000 vehicles. Domestic sales for Hyundai Motor India sped up 13% to more than 27,000. And Tata Motors sold 38% more vehicles this May, a total of nearly 53,000 cars, trucks and other vehicles.

Two-wheeler sales stayed on the fast lane as well. Hero Honda's increased to 436,000 units, an increase of 14%. And Bajaj Auto's India sales accelerated 63% to nearly 270,000 two-wheelers.

Markets broke a four-day rally Tuesday on troubling economic news. Data showing a slowdown in Chinese factory output took their toll on European shares, and Indian markets followed suit. The Sensex plummeted 373 points to close at 16,572. And the Nifty lost 116 points to end the day at 4,970.

http://www.livemint.com/2010/06/01234848/The-Mint-Report-for-01-June-20.html

Caste census: After Maken, Moily ticked off?

Times of India - ‎May 29, 2010‎
NEW DELHI: A day after after it disapproved of minister of state for home Ajay Maken's letter to party MPs seeking to mobilize them against caste-based ...

Moily wanted caste census, Registrar General said no

Indian Express - ‎May 29, 2010‎
Much before the controversial caste-based census issue was referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) last week, the Office of the Registrar General (ORG) which ...

Moily told to clam up on caste census

Hindustan Times - ‎May 29, 2010‎
The Congress's top leadership on Saturday conveyed to Law Minister Veerappa Moily not to air his views on the caste census in public, seeking to end to the ...

Caste conundrum

Sify - ‎May 29, 2010‎
And here's the latest on the caste-and-census conundrum. It now transpires that, shaken by the number of castes in our country (30000, at last count), ...

Caste in Indian census will set clock back (Comment)

Sify - ‎May 28, 2010‎
That caste has been one of the most divisive forces for centuries has never been in doubt. Its segmentation of Indian society into various mutually ...

Cong slams Maken letter on census

Indian Express - ‎May 28, 2010‎
The Congress on Friday disapproved of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken's letter to young MPs asking them to oppose inclusion of caste in the ...

Maken's letter to young MPs draws Congress ire

Times of India - ‎May 28, 2010‎
NEW DELHI: Union Cabinet may have, for all practical purposes, decided to include caste as an enumerating criterion in the ongoing census but the issue ...

Congress leadership pulls up Maken for writing letter opposing caste census

The Hindu - Smita Gupta - ‎May 28, 2010‎
The Congress leadership has taken a serious view of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken writing to young MPs, cutting across party lines, ...

Chorus for talks louder after Maken letter

Hindustan Times - ‎May 28, 2010‎
There are growing voices in the Congress for a discussion within the party on the caste-based census issue that the Group of Ministers (GoM) will look into. ...

Caste census is in downtrodden's interests: Mulayam

Sify - ‎May 28, 2010‎
Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav Friday reiterated his support for a caste-based census, terming it to be in the 'larger interest of the ...

Timeline of articles

Timeline of articles
Number of sources covering this story

Caste census: After Maken, Moily ticked off?
‎May 29, 2010‎ - Times of India

Congress leadership pulls up Maken for writing letter opposing caste census
‎May 28, 2010‎ - The Hindu

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RENDER UNTO CAESAR
- Oppressive laws may have totally unintended consequences

The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission is reported to have suggested including the teaching of the rudiments of human rights in the syllabus for schoolchildren.

Is he not pointing at the wrong end of the stick? Children, especially in a land such as ours that takes pride in its feudal heritage, look up to their elders as role models. If they have to acquire the sensitivity to appreciate the significance of human rights, it is the country's ruling politicians and lawmakers who must be made aware of their responsibilities in this regard. Sad to say, many of them are not even familiar with the chapters on directive principles of state policy and fundamental rights inscribed in our Constitution; their awareness of the Charter of Human Rights drawn up by the United Nations and endorsed by our government is a cipher. Besides, the new generation of politicians, including those adorning Parliament and state legislatures, are, more often than not, comprehensively innocent of the history of the nation's freedom movement. Alien rulers denied the most basic civil liberties to Indians. The fight for national independence was therefore entwined with the endeavour to assert, at different levels, the dignity of human existence. Leaders of the nationalist movement, as well as ordinary men and women, went to prison, for instance, to protest against the provisions of the claustrophobic Rowlatt Act. Heads and limbs of thousands were battered when they assembled in public places to register their abhorrence of the British practice of detaining without trial whomsoever they suspected of so-called seditious activities. The expression they used for persons they picked up for incarceration for an indefinite period without producing before a trial judge was 'security prisoners'. The central concern was not the security of the Indian nation but that of the empire.

With the odiousness of such practices still fresh in their memory, the authors of the Constitution of post-independent India depicted in detail features of the just republic they wanted to give shape to. The outcome was the formation of the directive principles of state policy alongside articles that set out the roster of fundamental rights for Indian citizenry, such as, equality before law, sanctity of life and personal liberty, freedom of speech and association, and protection against social and economic exploitation.

It took barely two years for the country's rulers to have a change of mind and retrace the footsteps of the erstwhile colonial masters. Legislation on preventive detention was sprung on the people, ostensibly on the ground of curbing 'Left adventurism' embarked upon by the Communist Party of India. The communists soon reined their more radical exuberance in, but those firmly entrenched in power could not be swayed from the passion to arm themselves with dubious legal authority to silence political opposition.

That regime of inequity has continued over six decades despite occasional changes in the colour of government. Civil liberty committees, largely sponsored by communist party activists, mobilized widespread public opinion against the return of repressive legislation, but to no avail. The Preventive Detention Act was followed by the long reign of such statutes as the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. The latest in the series is the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, with its particular emphasis on putting behind bars persons doing things or expressing views which, in the view of the authorities, amount to aiding or encouraging the perpetrators of unlawful activities.

This legislation has been in place for the past few years. It is supposed to be targeted against Maoists and their collaborators. The act, however, has not cramped the style of the insurgents entrenched in states across the central and eastern regions of the country. Joint expeditions launched by Central paramilitary forces and state police personnel in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal have actually met with a number of setbacks in the recent period. The authorities appear somewhat flummoxed and an internal debate is currently on, even within the Central cabinet, about how to proceed henceforth. The Union home minister has publicly aired his unhappiness at what he thinks is the limited mandate he has been given to crush the Maoist menace. According to one interpretation, he wants large-scale deployment of the army and the air force in the Maoist-infested areas.

Is the minister aware of the implications of what he is proposing? Ground reality cannot be wished away. The combined operations launched by armed contingents of the Centre and the states have not till now nabbed many hard core Maoists. The rough way they have gone about it, followed by indiscriminate arrests and prosecutions under the UAPA, has nonetheless further alienated many honest, innocent citizens in the disturbed areas. Neither civil liberty groups nor investigating journalists can be prevented from trying to unearth detailed information concerning such arrests and prosecutions. The Union home minister's stern warning, hinting that even chance acquaintances of distant friends of remote sympathizers of individuals suspected of supporting the Maoist cause run the risk of prosecution under the UAPA has, like it or not, tilted the scale of emotional — and intellectual — balance further against the authorities. For the minister's assertion is in essence akin to putting the formal imprimatur of approval on the concept of guilt by imputation championed by Senator Joe McCarthy in the United States of America in the early 1950s. A parallel can be drawn from our own colonial history too. British rulers introduced a statute — the Goondas Act — in the third decade of the last century with the announced purpose to deport from Calcutta and its vicinity certain criminal elements engaged in nefariously illegal activities in the metropolitan area but who could not be successfully proscribed because of difficulties encountered in assembling concrete evidence. The onus of deciding whom to deport was left to the discretion of the commissioner of the Calcutta Police and the magistrates in charge of the adjoining districts of 24 Parganas and Howrah. In no time, the provisions of the act were utilized to extern from Calcutta scores of dedicated political leaders and workers whose activities were inconveniencing the government.

The home minister will also be well advised to ponder over the consequences of a large-scale involvement of the army and air force to hunt down the Maoists. Army personnel forcing their way into a tribal village will often be unable to distinguish a simple-minded householder from a committed insurgency ideologue; nor will war planes targeting a presumed Maoist-ridden cluster of villages be able to pick and choose where to strafe and where not. Casualties will be high, with widespread deaths and destruction. The increased alienation of the tribal population will be accompanied by a surge of protests by large groups of conscientious citizens in urban areas. Will the home minister threaten them with the weaponry of the UAPA?

As long as the constitutional prerogative of freedom of thought and expression is not abrogated, democratic-minded people will rally against what they consider to be interference with civil liberties, even if such interference takes place in locations where Maoists have a strong presence. Should not time and energy be better spent on introspecting on the reasons for the steady spread of tribal discontent, including on the consequences of mollycoddling the likes of Shibu Soren and Madhu Koda? Even as exploitation of adivasis by land sharks and mining and industry barons proceeds apace, the country's political establishment keeps picking corrupt-to-the-core Uncle Toms and humouring them all the way. It is pointless to hold it against the adivasis if they have had enough of the ongoing spectacle and choose to try out an alternative path promised by the Maoists. The latter have their own thesis and bagful of strategies which too can be suspected of exploiting the immiserized adivasis. What is already revealed, however, makes a dent on the mind greater than what is as yet merely a conjecture, and in such a situation, even the most gruesome excesses of the Maoists — such as, indiscriminate killings of Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s workers and supporters — only elicit mild disapproval and nothing more from bystanders.

Must not the authorities ponder how various citizen groups, with weighty academic or professional credentials and impeccable bourgeois roots, have persuaded themselves to give a compassionate hearing to what Indian Maoists are saying and doing purportedly on behalf of the adivasis? Perhaps it is the rationality ticking inside the metabolism of the human species which is at work, a rationality which looks with disfavour on the indignities heaped through the ages upon descendants of the country's original population.

Even it is firmly established that blowing away that passenger train near Jhargram in West Bengal resulting in 150 deaths and the crippling of very many more was a Maoist plot, the bottom line will remain the bottom line. It will still be an open question whether Maoists are the greatest security threat to the nation or whether that investiture is to be reserved for those who create the conditions that enable outlaws to dare perpetrate such a dastardly act.

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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100604/jsp/opinion/story_12514636.jsp

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Is counting the caste good or bad? India is divided

Sify - ‎May 30, 2010‎
Is it good to ask the Indian his or her caste? The political class is divided although a vast majority of Indians carry their caste firmly etched in their ...

India divided over question in census about caste identity

Boston Globe - Tim Sullivan - ‎May 29, 2010‎
AP / May 30, 2010 NEW DELHI — Bollywood's biggest star has an answer ready if census workers ask about his caste: "Indian. ...

Column : Is a caste census at all sensible?

Financial Express - ‎May 31, 2010‎
: Including caste questions in the census could transform current identity politics into more effective policymaking to address long-standing inequality. ...

Caste clubs are vote banks

Khaleej Times - Badri Narayan, Mousumi Majumder - ‎May 31, 2010‎
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A system of discrimination

The Express Tribune - Aditi Phadnis - ‎May 29, 2010‎
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Why the UID number project must be scrapped

June 02, 2010 13:49 IST

Activist Gopal Krishna makes a case that the Unique Identification Number project is a gross violation of fundamental human rights and points out that a similar project/law in Britain is going to be repealed.

This is with reference to a privacy invasion project which is relevant to India [ Images ] and all the democratic countries of the world. The very first bill that is to be presented by the UK's new coalition government in the British Parliament is to repeal its Identity Cards Act 2006 even as Government of India has chosen to give approval to Unique Identification Number project that threatens citizens' privacy. Clearly, what is poisonous for civil liberties in the UK cannot become non-poisonous in India.

If one takes cognisance of the claim that the 'UID system is a civilian application of biometrics' and compares it with current practices, one finds that such a claim is quite misplaced.

In the report there is reference to a study commissioned by the US Department of Homeland Security to International Biometrics Group. Will someone explain how manifest reference to such a study constitutes civilian application?

In our country, it is rarely noticed as to when the concept of massively organised information quietly emerged to become a means of social control, a weapon of war, and for the victimisation of ethnic groups. Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and former chief executive of Infosys Technologies Ltd [ Get Quote ], India's second largest software company, has misled the Government of India into making it believe that in a country with 48 percent illiteracy, a 12-digit card would be helpful in reaching the poorest of the poor.

The Unique Identification Number/Aadhar project that emerged from the constitution of Unique Identification Authority of India in January 2009 reminds one of what happened from the period preceding Adolf Hitler's [ Images ] arrival to January 1933 when he occupied power, to Second World War and since then. The way International Business Machines, the world's largest technology company and the second most valuable global brand, colluded with the Nazis to identify Jews for targeted asset confiscation, ghettoisation, deportation, and ultimately extermination to help Hitler with its punch card and card sorting system -- a precursor to the computer -- made the automation of human destruction possible is a matter of historical fact.

Unmindful of the lessons from Germany [ Images ] in particular and Europe in general, advancing the argument of targeting, it has been claimed on the floor of Parliament by the finance minister while presenting the 2010-11 Union Budget that the UID project 'would provide an effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments,' the same targeting measures can be used with vindictive motives against citizens of certain religion, caste and ethnicity or region or towards a section of society due to economic resentment.

Curiously, the finance minister and the head of UID/Aadhar project refer to financial inclusion and not about economic inclusion of the poor. Exclusion of certain sections of society for political reasons had led to the targeted massacre of 1947, 1984 and 2002 in India. If an exhaustive trans-disciplinary study is conducted it would reveal how privacy is closely connected to data protection and the same was readily available to perpetrators of riots, massacres and genocide in our country.

The UID project is going to do almost exactly the same thing which the predecessors of Hitler did, else how is it that Germany always had the lists of Jewish names even prior to the arrival of the Nazis? The Nazis got these lists with the help of IBM which was in the 'census' business that included racial census that entailed not only count the Jews but also identifying them. At the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is an exhibit of an IBM Hollerith D-11 card sorting machine that was responsible for organising the census of 1933 that first identified the Jews.

The Government of India cannot guarantee that in future, when the Nazis or some such sort come to power in India, they would not have access to UID for vindictive measures against certain sections of the citizenry. This is evidently the journey of 'identification' efforts from January 1933 to January 2009, when the UID Authority was announced.

The UID and National Population Register is all set to do what IBM did in Germany, Romania and in Europe and elsewhere through 'solutions' ranging from the census to providing list of names of Jews to Nazis. The UID has nothing to do with citizenship, it is merely an identification exercise.

Against such a backdrop, as concerned citizens, we welcome the progressive step by the new coalition government in the UK to scrap its controversial national identity card scheme in order to safeguard citizens' privacy and act against intrusions. The scrapping of the UK's ID project is planned to be done in the next 3-4 months. Besides repealing the Identity Cards Act 2006 and outlawing the finger-printing of children at school, the UK government would stop its National Identity Register and the next generation of biometric passports, the Contact Point database and end storage of Internet and email records.

But unlike the UK, the Government of India through a Press Information Bureau release dated May 18 has stated that 'the Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification Authority of India related issues today approved in principle the adoption of the approach outlined by UIDAI for collection of demographic and biometric attributes of residents (face, all ten fingerprints and iris) for the UID project. It was also decided to include data of the iris for children in the age group of 5 to 15 years. The same standards and processes would be adhered to by the Registrar General of India for the NPR exercise and all other registrars in the UID system.'

Not surprisingly, the government is feigning ignorance about the democratic movement against such efforts. In India too, there is a robust case against rejecting what has been rejected in the UK. The UID project is a blatant case of infringement of civil liberties. The government's identification exercise follows the path of the Information Technology Act 2000 that was enacted in the absence of no data or privacy protection legislation.

As is the case with the UID project, in the UK too the scheme has been vacillating from one claimed purpose to another. The project is being bulldozed in the name of poor by saying, 'Identity becomes a bottleneck if one wants to have a ration card, driving licence, passport, bank account or a mobile connection. It will enable poor residents to access multiple resources including education, health and financial services.'

Following the footprints of the UK's discredited project, it is being said that 'the identity number will help get a child admission in school.' Perhaps fearing abandonment of the project, in the aftermath of the UK government's decision, it is being now said that the Unique Identification Number is optional, not mandatory.

How is it that two democracies deal with the issue of ungovernable breaches of privacy differently? While the UK government is proactive in protecting the privacy of its citizens, the Government of India is ridiculing the very idea of privacy and civil liberties.

It is highly disturbing that at almost the same time, India's minority coalition government plans to do just the contrary with astounding disregard to citizens' privacy by stamping them with an UID number based on their biometric data. Such a 'surveillance' effort through the world's largest citizen identity project for 'creating a Unique Identity Number for every resident in India' undermines our democracy beyond repair.

Related to the UID number project is the NPR project. This is for the first time that the NPR is being prepared. The database will be built by the Registrar General of India. It is noteworthy that the census and NPR are different. The census is the biggest source of data on demography, literacy and education, housing and household amenities, economic activity, urbanisation, fertility, mortality, language, religion and migration. It serves as the primary data for planning and the implementation of policies of the central and state governments.

The NPR involves the creation of a comprehensive identity database for the country. It will include items of information such as the name of the person, father's name, mother's name, spouse's name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, current marital status, education, nationality as declared, occupation, present address of usual resident and permanent residential address. The database will also contain photograph and finger biometry of persons above the age of 15.

After the NPR database is finalised, the next task would be assigning every individual a UID. This number will be added to the NPR database. It is proposed to issue identity cards which will be a smart card with UID number printed on it and include basic details like name, mother's/father's name, sex, date and place of birth, photograph. Complete details will be stored in the chip.

Like in the UK, in India too there is a need for a similar measure to stop the efforts underway through the UIDAI to issue a UID number to every resident in the country. Issuing unique identity numbers to the 1.2 billion residents of India based on biometric data is fraught with hitherto unimaginable dangers of human rights violations. It has emerged that it all started rolling in the aftermath of a meeting of the empowered group of ministers on November 4, 2008, and a meeting of the prime minister's council of the UID Authority on August 12, 2009, wherein it was decided that there was a 'need for a legislative framework' akin to the UK's Identity Cards Act 2006 which is now being scrapped.

The 13th Finance Commission has made a provision for an incentive of Rs 100 per person (Rs 400-500 per family) to bribe citizens below the poverty line to register for the UID and has recommended a grant of Rs 2,989.10 crore to be given to the state governments for the same. The three states (Karnataka [ Images ], Madhya Pradesh [ Images ] and Andhra Pradesh) who have signed an MoU on their part have set up state-level committees to work as UIDAI registrars for collecting biometric samples like thumb impression or cornea configuration of each individual resident. Has there been any debate so far in the legislatures about the ramifications of a project which is all set to be scrapped in the UK?

As per the Authority's Office Memorandum signed by director general, UIDAI, dated September 29, 2009, 'The main objective is to improve benefits service delivery, especially to the poor and the marginalised sections of the society. To deliver its mandate, the UIDAI proposes to create a platform to first collect the identity details and then to perform authentication that can be used by several government and private service providers.'

The reference to private service providers is inexplicable, for the work is meant to be an exercise for public purpose and for the poor and the marginalised. The promise of service delivery to the poor and the marginalised hides how it will enable access to profit for the IT industry and the biometrics industry. Such claims are quite insincere, misleading and factually incorrect. It reminds one of the pledges in the Preamble of the Constitution of India, it will have us believe that the UID Authority would fulfil the constitutional promise of economic equality. Such objectives are bad sophistry at best.

This authority in turn set up a Biometrics Standards Committee in order 'to review existing standards and modify/extend/enhance them so as to achieve the goals and purpose for de-duplications and authentication' through framing biometrics standards for fingerprints, face and iris.

The authority defines biometrics as 'the science of establishing the identity of an individual based on the physical, chemical or behavioural attributes of the person.' Besides, photos of the face are commonly used in various types of identification cards, it is undertaking the use of fingerprints for identification and recording the iris, the annular region of the eye, bounded by the pupil and sclera on either side which is considered the most accurate biometric parameter.

The committee reveals that 'the biometrics will be captured for authentication by government departments and commercial organisations at the time of service delivery.' The commercial organisation mentioned herein is not defined.

The Biometrics Standards Committee refers to previous experiences of the US and Europe with biometrics. A technical sub-group was also formed that collected over 250,000 fingerprint images from 25,000 persons sourced from districts of Delhi [ Images ], UP, Bihar and Orissa for analysing Indian fingerprints. It may do the same for the iris and face as well to form a database size of 1.2 billion. It has been recommended that the 'biometrics data are national assets and must be preserved in their original quality.' The committee refers to citizens' database as a national asset.

Both the UID and NPR, through convergence, represent a case of the State and the 'market' tracking citizens for one reason or the other. It is benign neither in its design nor in its execution. The working paper of the UIDAI revealed that the 'UID number will only guarantee identity, not rights, benefits or entitlements'. It is also said that it would not even guarantee identity, it would only provide 'aid' in identification.

We support the campaign of the people' movements, mass organisations, institutions and concerned citizens and individuals who strongly oppose the potential tracking and profiling based techno-governance tools such as the UID number. We demand that Parliament or the Comptroller and Auditor General should probe the UID Authority's work from January 2009 till date.

In view of the above mentioned facts, we submit that the collection of such data is a classic case of gross violation of fundamental human rights. The Government of India should take prompt lessons from the UK government's decision to scrap its National ID project and desist from taking the path paved by IBM for the Holocaust and abandon its UID/Aadhar project.

Gopal Krishna is a member of the Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties.

Do you agree with the views expressed above? Or do you have a view to the contrary? Do let us know in the message board below.

Gopal Krishna
http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/jun/02/why-the-uid-number-project-must-be-scrapped.htm

UPA-II loses momentum as challenges mount

May 26, 2010 14:39 IST
The Congress success in the parliamentary election last year had unleashed a wave of optimism but that feel-good mood is now a thing of the past, writes Harsh V Pant.

Finally, we heard from the prime minister. Manmohan Singh [ Images ] rarely interacts with the media and even rarer are his attempts to reach out to the ordinary Indians, explaining to them why he is doing what he is doing.

Maybe that's the task that he has left for Sonia Gandhi [ Images ] and the heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi [ Images ]. But a vibrant democracy requires continued public engagement from its politicians and constant communication between the leader and the led.

The prime minister's message during his press conference marking the first anniversary of the UPA-II was not inspirational but rather a tad bureaucratic, suggesting that India [ Images ] must reach 10 percent economic growth in coming years and also improve relations with Pakistan if it wants to reduce poverty and make rapid progress.

His government took power last May amid great expectations but there has been little drive in its policy priorities so far. If the UPA-I was paralysed because of the shenanigans of coalition partners, in UPA-II it is Congress' internal battles that have taken the wind out of the sails of this government so early in its term. This is especially true on foreign and national security issues where the prime minister's authority has been openly and repeatedly questioned by the members of his party.

On Pakistan, while the government seems to have made up its mind on proceeding with talks with Islamabad [ Images ], it's not clear how the talks will proceed given public disenchantment with Pakistan's behaviour. The prime minister has staked his personal prestige on improving ties with Pakistan and he has underlined the need to deal with the trust deficit between the two sides if peace process is to have any meaning at all.

Singh and his Pakistani counterpart (Yousuf Raza Gilani [ Images ]) had agreed to resume peace talks on the sidelines of the SAARC summit last month. But the day the Prime Minister's Office revealed its plans to send 20 kilos of handpicked Alphonso mangoes to the Pakistani prime minister, Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Lahore [ Images ] high court to release Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ]. India was left merely expressing its disappointment over the decision to let the mastermind of the Mumbai [ Images ] carnage go scot free.

India-Pakistan talks are also happening in the context of growing external pressure on India to resume these talks. The Indian diplomatic debacle at the London [ Images ] conference on Afghanistan earlier this year has forced a major rethink of Delhi's [ Images ] Af-Pak policy. The first step has been to restart talks with Pakistan. While these talks may fail to produce anything concrete in the near future, the hope is that it will stave off pressure from the US to engage Islamabad.

Therefore, even though negotiations with Pakistan remain hugely unpopular at home, the Indian government has decided to proceed. India hopes that by doing so, it will be seen as a more productive player in the West's efforts at stabilising Afghanistan. It is unlikely though that this is going to happen as the West's sole concern right now is to find a face-saving exit formula in Afghanistan, and Pakistan remains central to achieving that goal.

India is debating its options in Afghanistan in a strategic space that seems to have shrunk over the last few years. By failing to craft its own narrative on Af-Pak ever since US troops went into Afghanistan in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, New Delhi has allowed the West, and increasingly Pakistan, to dictate the contours of Indian policy towards the region.

A fundamental disconnect has emerged between US and Indian interests in Af-Pak. The Barack Obama [ Images ] administration has been systematically ignoring Indian interests in the crafting of its Af-Pak priorities. While actively discouraging India from assuming a higher profile in Afghanistan, for fear of offending Pakistan, the US has failed to persuade Pakistan into taking Indian concerns more seriously.

Anxious for some kind of victory, the West has decided to court the 'good' Taliban [ Images ] with Pakistan's help. This has underlined Islamabad's centrality in the unfolding strategic dynamic in the region, much to India's discomfiture. By pursuing a strategy that will give Pakistan the leading role in the state structures in Afghanistan, the West, however, is only sowing the seeds for future regional turmoil.

While the US may have no vital interest in determining who actually governs in Afghanistan, so long as the Afghan territory is not being used to launch attacks on US soil, India does. The consequence of abandoning the goal to establish a functioning Afghan state and a moderate Pakistan will be greater pressure on Indian security. To preserve its interests in such a strategic milieu, India is rather belatedly reaching out to states like Russia [ Images ] and Iran but has found it difficult to convey to the US its displeasure regarding the changing priorities of Washington.

As India struggles to come to terms with its troubled neighbourhood, China is making its presence felt across the globe with splash. Yet, India's China policy remains in doldrums. Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh [ Images ] ends up accusing the Indian government (of which he is a part) of being "overly defensive and alarmist" in dealing with Chinese companies. According to him, the warming of ties between China and India as a consequence of their collaboration on global climate change negotiations was being harmed by the "suspicious attitude" of the Indian security establishment. Ramesh challenged his government's policy on a foreign soil, in essence suggesting that its is the Chinese government that is right when it underscores time and again that India, not China, is responsible for the recent downward spiral in Sino-Indian ties. It's indeed a remarkable achievement for a government minister that he ends up giving ammunition to an adversary that has left no stone unturned in challenging India's rise at every possible forum.

Meanwhile, the internal security situation in the country has gone from bad to worse. The UPA-II has failed to make even the slightest difference to India's precarious internal security situation. The prime minister during his press conference denied that the government had underestimated the Maoists, noting that for the past three years he has called them India's gravest internal security threat. But that's clearly not enough. He must first get his party behind him if he wants to take on the Maoists.

Home Minister P Chidambaram's [ Images ] detractors within the Congress are more interested in neutralising him than in confronting the Maoists. Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh [ Images ] has not only public questioned Chidambaram's approach in tackling Naxalism but has also attacked him for not knowing the terrain of the area. He has openly demanded a rethink of the government's strategy of fighting Naxalism and accused Chidambaram of 'intellectual arrogance'.

The war against the Maoists cannot be won without depriving it of the oxygen of partisan politics. And it is important that the government speaks in one voice. The Naxalites [ Images ] have figured out that they are dealing with a political leadership which had already committed a self-goal by equating counter offensives against Naxalites with tribal alienation and which had in the process totally demoralised the security forces, who are dying in large number while the political class can pontificate from their air-conditioned rooms.

The Congress' 206 parliamentary seats in last year's election had unleashed a wave of optimism but that feel-good mood is now a thing of the past. One year into its term, the UPA-II seems to have lost its way and momentum. The prime minister makes no effort to create and mould public opinion to help him in governance and in support of his policies. Moreover, the Congress needs to hold an honest conversation with itself before it can embark any further in tackling this nation's challenges. It would be well advised not to waste an opportunity that the people of India gave it last year.

Harsh V Pant
http://news.rediff.com/column/2010/may/26/upa-loses-momentum-as-challenges-mount.htm
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Search Options


Sharad Yadav castes doubt on govt

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The Hindu - Neena Vyas - ‎May 27, 2010‎
NEW DELHI:The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to be hoping to paper over its differences with its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, on the issue of ...


"If we were to accept the proposal to accept caste as a parameter in the Census, we would, for at least the next 10-20 years institutionalise caste rather than development as the national political agenda," Maken said in his letter sent to 67 young MPs, aged between 25 and 45.
more by Ajay Maken - May 27, 2010 - Indian Express (5 occurrences)


MoS Maken asks young MPs to oppose caste census

Indian Express - ‎May 27, 2010‎
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Indian Express - ‎May 27, 2010‎
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The Congress brass has decided to include caste-wise data as a part of the government's ongoing exercise to compile the census details by 2011. ...

Avoid caste in census, says minister Maken

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Churning in the Congress over caste census

NDTV.com - ‎May 27, 2010‎
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GoM is a delaying tactic, says Sharad

Hindustan Times - ‎May 27, 2010‎
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Census question over caste identity divides India

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Timeline of articles

Timeline of articles
Number of sources covering this story

Sharad Yadav castes doubt on govt
‎May 27, 2010‎ - Economic Times

Caste-based census issue to be decided by GoM
‎May 27, 2010‎ - Press Trust of India

No consensus on caste in census
‎May 26, 2010‎ - Hindustan Times

Cabinet to consider caste census today
‎May 25, 2010‎ - Times of India

Images

Indian Express
Oneindia
Samachar Today ...
Press Trust of ...
Kansas City Sta...
Indian Express
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The State
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Videos

No clarity on caste-based census
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Delhi to sign pact for early unique identification numbers

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Questionable link

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Delhi fast-tracks process for unique IDs to citizens

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Delhi Govt and UIDAI to ink pact

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Aadhar is stronger than US counterpart

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What You Can Do

Get the word out about the 2010 Census.

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Incorporate the 2010 Census Widget into your Web site to help share the importance of census participation. The Census Bureau will begin making door-to-door follow-up visits in your community on May 1, 2010 to ensure everyone is counted.

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  1. To embed the Door-To-Door widget as shown above, paste this code into your html page:
    <iframe src="http://2010.census.gov/clock/Census2010Countdown.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" height="81px" width="382px">It looks like your browser cannot or does not support IFRAMES.</iframe>

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Demographics of India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to:navigation, search
Demographics of India
India-demography.png
Population of India, 1961-2003
Population:1,180,166,000 (2010 est)
Growth rate:1.548% (2009 est)
Birth rate:22.22 births/1,000 population (2009 est)
Death rate:6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est)
Life expectancy: 69.89 years (2009 est)
–male:67.46 years (2009 est)
–female:72.61 years (2009 est)
Fertility rate:2.72 children born/woman (NFHS-3, 2008)
Infant mortality rate:{{{infant_mortality}}}
Age structure:
0-14 years:31.1% (male 190,075,426/female 172,799,553) (2009 est)
15-64 years:63.6% (male 381,446,079/female 359,802,209) (2009 est)
65-over:5.3% (male 29,364,920/female 32,591,030) (2009 est)
Sex ratio:
At birth:1.12 male(s)/female (2009)
Under 15:1.10 male(s)/female (2009)
15-64 years:1.06 male(s)/female (2009)
65-over:0.90 male(s)/female (2009)
Nationality:
Language:
Official:Hindi, English

The demographics of India are remarkably diverse. India is the second-largest populated country in the world with over 1.18 billion people (estimate for April, 2010) and consists of more than one-sixth of the world's population. It contributes 17.31% of the world's population and projected that India will be the largest populated country by 2025 surpassing China, and by 2050 it will have over 1.6 billion people.[1][2] India has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages) as well as a language isolate (the Nihali language[3] spoken in parts of Maharashtra).

Further complexity is lent by the great variation that occurs across this population on social parameters such as income and education. Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic, genetic and cultural diversity of the nation of India.[4]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Salient features

India occupies 2.4% of the world's land area and supports over 17.5% of the world's population. India has more arable land area than any country except the United States,[5] and more water area than any country except Canada and the United States. Indian life revolves mostly around agriculture and allied activities in small villages, where the overwhelming majority of Indians live. As per the 2001 census, 72.2% of the population[6] lives in about 638,000 villages[7] and the remaining 27.8%[8] lives in more than 5,100 towns and over 380 urban agglomerations.[9]

[edit] Religious demographics

Table 1: 2001 Religious Data Composotion[10]
Religious CompositionPopulation(%)
Hindus827,578,86880.5%
Muslims138,188,24013.4%
Christians 24,080,0162.3%
Sikhs19,215,7301.9%
Buddhists7,955,2070.8%
Jains4,225,0530.4%
Other Religions & Persuasions 6,639,6260.6%
Religion not stated727,5880.1%
Total1,028,610,328100.0%
N.B. "Total" excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur state.

India contains the majority of the world's Zoroastrians, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains and Bahá'í. India is also home to the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan.

Religious majorities vary greatly by state. Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep are Muslim majority states; Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya are Christian majority; Punjab is mostly Sikh; It is to be noted that while participants in the Indian census may choose to not declare their religion, there is no mechanism for a person to indicate that he/she does not adhere to any religion. Due to this limitation in the Indian census process, the data for persons not affiliated with any religion may not be accurate.

The table below summarizes the findings of the 2001 census with regards to religion in India:

  1. All figures in %.
  2. Others including Bahá'ís, Jews, and Parsis.
  3. Tribal Animists (and non religious) are grouped under Others after 1926 (1931 census onwards)
Table 2: Census information for 2001*
Composition↓Hindus[11]↓ Muslims[12]↓ Christians[13]↓ Sikhs[14]↓ Buddhist[15]↓ Jains[16]↓ Others[17]↓
 % total of population 200580.5%13.4%2.3%1.9%0.8%0.4%0.6%
10-Yr Growth % (est '91–'01)[18]* 20.3%29.5%22.6%18.2%24.5%26.0%103.1%
Sex ratio† (avg. 944)93594010098959559401000
Literacy rate (avg. 79.9)75.560.090.370.473.095.050.0
Work Participation Rate40.431.339.737.7 40.632.948.4
Rural sex ratio[18]944953 1001895958937995
Urban sex ratio[18] 9229071026886944941966
Child sex ratio (0–6 yrs)925950964786942870976

N.B. Table excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur state.

* The data is "unadjusted" (without excluding Assam and Jammu and Kashmir); 1981 census was not conducted in Assam and 1991 census was not conducted in Jammu and Kashmir.

† No. of females/1000 males.

[edit] Linguistic demographics

43% of the Hindus speak Hindi while the rest speak Bangla, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Assamese and other languages. Almost 45% of the Muslims speak Urdu while the rest speak Bangla, Hindi, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Assamese and other languages. About one-third of the Christians speak Malayalam, one-sixth speak Tamil while the rest speak a variety of languages. In total, there are 1,652 languages and dialects spoken in India.[19]

Languages of India by number of native speakers as per the 2001 census[20]
Rank↓Language↓ Speakers↓Percentage↓
1Hindi dialects[21] 422,048,64241.03%
2Bengali83,369,7698.11%
3Telugu 74,002,8567.19%
4Marathi71,936,8946.99%
5Tamil 60,793,8145.91%
6Urdu51,536,1115.01%
7Gujarati 46,091,6174.48%
8Kannada37,924,0114.69%
9Malayalam 33,066,3923.21%
10Oriya33,017,4463.21%
11Punjabi 29,102,4772.83%
12Assamese13,168,4841.28%
13Maithili 12,179,1221.18%
14Bhili/Bhilodi9,582,9570.95%
15Santali 6,469,6000.63%
16Kashmiri5,527,6980.54%
17Nepali 2,871,7490.28%
18Gondi2,713,7900.27%
19Sindhi 2,535,4850.25%
20Konkani2,489,0150.24%
21Dogri 2,282,5890.22%
22Khandeshi2,075,2580.21%
23Kurukh1,751,4890.17%
24Tulu 1,722,7680.17%
25Meitei (Manipuri)1,466,705*0.14%
26Bodo 1,350,4780.13%
27Khasi1,128,5750.112%
28Mundari 1,061,3520.105%
29Ho1,042,7240.103%

N.B. The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India (excluding Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati District of Manipur state due to cancellation of census results).

* Excludes Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul of Senapati District.

[edit] CIA World Factbook demographic statistics

The following demographic statistics are from the CIA World Factbook, unless otherwise indicated.

Chart showing the Total Fertility Rate of Indian states (SRS survey 1996-98)[22]
Total Population

1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est. CIA)[23] 1,028.7 million (2001 Census final figures, March 1 enumeration and estimated 124,000 in areas of Manipur that could not be covered in the enumeration)

Map showing the population density of each district in India
Rural Population

72.2%, male: 381,668,992, female: 360,948,755 (2001 Census)

Urban Population


Age structure:
0–14 years: 30.8%, male: 188,208,196, female: 171,356,024
15–64 years: 64.3%, male: 386,432,921, female: 364,215,759
65+ years: 4.9%, male: 27,258,259, female: 30,031,289 (2007 est.)

Median age:
25.1 years

Population growth rate

1.548% (2009 est.)

Birth rate

21.76 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Death rate

6.4 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.)

Map showing the literacy rate of each district in India
Literacy rate

79.9%

Percent of the population under the poverty line

22% (2006 est.)

Unemployment Rate

7.8%

Net migration rate

− -0.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Sex ratio


at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.098 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.061 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.908 male(s)/female
total population: 1.064 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate

total: 30.15 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) male: 34.61 deaths/1,000 live births female: 25.17 deaths/1,000 live births

Life expectancy at birth


total population: 69.89 years
male: 67.46 years
female: 72.61 years (2007 est.)

Total fertility rate

2.72 children born/woman (2009 est.) The TFR (Total number of children born per women) according to Religion in 2001 was :

Hindus — 2.0 Muslims — 2.4 Sikhs — 1.6 Christians — 2.1 Buddhists — 2.1 Jains — 1.4 Animists and Others — 2.99 Tribals — 3.16 Scheduled Castes — 2.89[citation needed]

Nationality


noun: Indian(s)
adjective: Indian

Religions

Hindu 80.5% Muslim 13.4% Christian 2.3% Sikh 1.8% Buddhists 0.8% Jains 0.4% others 0.7% unspecified 0.1% (2001 Census) [24][25] [26].[27]

Scheduled Castes and Tribes

Scheduled Castes: 16.2% (2001 Census) Scheduled Tribes: 8.2% (2001 Census)

Languages: See Languages of India and List of Indian languages by total speakers. There are 216 languages with more than 10,000 native speakers in India. The largest of these is Hindi with some 337 million (the second largest being Bangla with some 207 million). 22 languages are recognized as official languages. In India, there are 1,652 languages and dialects in total.[19][28]

[edit] 2020 Estimate

Table 2: Population Projections (in millions)

YearUnder 1515–6465+Total
2000361 604451010
2005368673511093
2010370747581175
2015372819 651256
2020373882761331

Source: Based on P.N. Mari Bhat, "Indian Demographic Scenario 2025", Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, Discussion Paper No. 27/2001.

[edit] Ethnic groups

The national Census of India does not recognize racial or ethnic groups within India,[29] but recognizes many of the tribal groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (see list of Scheduled Tribes in India).

It should be noted that Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic are mainly linguistic terms and denote speakers of these linguistic groups.

For a list of ethnic groups in the Republic of India (as well as neighboring countries) see ethnic groups of the Indian subcontinent or the tree diagram above.

[edit] Genetics

[30][31]

[edit] Y-chromosome DNA

Y-Chromosome DNA Y-DNA represents the male lineage, The Indian Y-chromosome pool may be summarized as follows where haplogroups R1a, H, R2, L & NOP comprise generally more than 80% of the total chromosomes.[32]

  • H ~ 30%
  • R1a ~ 20%
  • R2 ~ 15%
  • L ~ 10%
  • NOP ~ 10% (Excluding R)
  • Other Haplogroups 15%

[edit] Mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondrial DNA mtDNA represents the female lineage. The Indian mitochondrial DNA, which is primarily made up of Haplogroup M[33]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ BBC - India's population 'to be biggest' in the planet
  2. ^ United States Census Bureau - International Data Base (IDB)
  3. ^ SIL International. "Ethnologue report for Language Isolate". http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90087. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
  4. ^ India, a Country Study United States Library of Congress, Note on Ethnic groups
  5. ^ GM Crops Around the World – an accurate picture GM Freeze, Table 3
  6. ^ Rural-Urban distribution Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Rural-Urban Distribution. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved on 2008-11-26.
  7. ^ Number of Villages Census of India: Number of Villages Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved on 2008-11-26.
  8. ^ Rural-Urban distribution Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Rural-Urban Distribution. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved on 2008-11-26.
  9. ^ Urban Agglomerations and Towns Census of India: Urban Agglomerations and Towns. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved on 2008-11-26.
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Hindus". Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  12. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Muslims". Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  13. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Christians". Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  14. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Sikhs". Census of India 2001: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  15. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Buddhists". Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  16. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Jains". Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  17. ^ "Tables: Profiles by main religions: Other religions". Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  18. ^ a b c "Census of India.". Census of India. Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx. Retrieved 2008-11-26. 
  19. ^ a b Mother Tongues of India According to the 1961 Census
  20. ^ Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues - 2000, Census of India, 2001
  21. ^ includes Western Hindi, Eastern Hindi, Bihari languages, Rajasthani languages and Pahari languages.
  22. ^ National Population Policy of India
  23. ^ CIA World Factbook -- India
  24. ^ Religious Composition Census of India: Census Data 2001: India at a glance >> Religious Composition. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved on 2008-11-26.
  25. ^ International Religious Freedom Report 2007 — India International Religious Freedom Report 2007. U.S. Department of State.
  26. ^ CIA's The World Factbook — India
  27. ^ Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs — Background Note: India
  28. ^ Rupert Goodwins. Smashing India's language barriers. ZDNet UK.
  29. ^ Kumar, Jayant. Census of India. 2001. September 4, 2006. Indian Census
  30. ^ http://www.pnas.org/content/103/4/843.full
  31. ^ http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2148-5-26.pdf
  32. ^ Hammer et al. 2005, S. Sahoo et al. 2006, R. Trivedi et al. 2007, Zhao et al. 2008
  33. ^ Semino et al. 2000, Kivisild et al. 2003, Metspalu et al 2004, Rajkumar et al. 2005, Chandrasekar et al. 2007, Gonzalez et al. 2007

[edit] External links

Census

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to:navigation, search
Census taker visits a family living in a caravan, Netherlands 1925

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.[1][2] The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include agriculture, business, and traffic. In the latter cases the elements of the 'population' are farms/businesses/etc rather than people. The United Nations defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as "individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined periodicity", and recommends that population censuses are taken at least every 10 years.[3] The term itself comes from Latin: during the Roman Republic the census was a list that kept track of all adult males fit for military service.

The census can be contrasted with sampling in which information is obtained only from a subset of a population, sometimes as an Intercensal estimate. Census data is commonly used for research, business marketing, and planning as well as a base for sampling surveys. In some countries, census data is used to apportion electoral representation (sometimes controversially - e.g. see Utah v. Evans).

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Census and privacy

While the census provides a useful way of obtaining statistical information about a population, such information can sometimes lead to abuses, political or otherwise, made possible by the linking of individuals' identities to anonymous census data.[4] This consideration is particularly important when individuals' census responses are made available in microdata form, but even aggregate-level data can result in privacy breaches when dealing with small areas and/or rare subpopulations.

For instance, when reporting data from a large city, it might be appropriate to give the average income for black males aged between 50 and 60. However, doing this for a town that only has two black males in this age group would be a breach of privacy because either of those persons, knowing his own income and the reported average, could determine the other man's income.

Typically, census data is processed to obscure individual information. Some agencies do this by intentionally introducing small statistical errors to prevent the identification of individuals in marginal populations;[5] others swap variables for similar respondents. Whatever measures have been taken to reduce the privacy risk in census data, new technology in the form of better electronic analysis of data poses increasing challenges to the protection of sensitive individual information.

[edit] Ancient and medieval censuses

[edit] Egypt

Censuses in Egypt are said to have been taken during the early Pharaonic period in 3340 BC and in 3050 BC.

[edit] China

The world's oldest extant census data comes from China sometime before the Xia Dynasty, over 4,000 years ago, counting some 13 million people.[6][7] The second oldest extant data in the world comes from the Han Dynasty, in what is perhaps China's most well-known ancient census.[8][9] Taken in the fall of 2 AD, it is considered by scholars to be quite accurate.[10] By that time, there were 57.67 million people registered in 12.36 million households living in China.[11][12][13] The third oldest data in the world is also from the Han Dynasty, dating back to 144 AD, when only 49.73 million people living in 9.94 million households were counted. Mass migrations into what is today southern China are believed to be behind this massive demographic decline. Numerous other census data survives from Imperial China.

[edit] Rome

The word 'census' originates in ancient Rome from the Latin word 'censere' (meaning 'estimate'). The census played a crucial role in the administration of the Roman Empire, as it was used to determine taxes (see Censor (ancient Rome)). With few interruptions, it was usually carried out every five years[14]. It provided a register of citizens and their property from which their duties and privileges could be listed.

[edit] Umayyad Caliphate

In the Middle Ages, the Caliphate began conducting regular censuses soon after its formation, beginning with the one ordered by the second Rashidun caliph, Umar.[15]

[edit] Medieval Europe

The most famous census in medieval Europe is the Domesday Book, undertaken in 1086 by William I of England so that he could properly tax the land he had recently conquered. In 1183, a census was taken of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, to ascertain the number of men and amount of money that could possibly be raised against an invasion by Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria.

[edit] Inca Empire

In the 15th century, the Inca Empire had a unique way to record census information. The Incas did not have any written language but recorded information collected during censuses and other numeric information as well as non-numeric data on quipus, strings from llama or alpaca hair or cotton cords with numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base-10 positional system.

[edit] Modern censuses

[edit] Afghanistan

A partial and incomplete population census was taken in Afghanistan in 1980. A census was planned for 2007.[16]

[edit] Albania

The latest population census was conducted in Albania in April 2001.[17][18] Prior to that, a census was conducted in 1989 at the end of the communist regime.

[edit] Algeria

Population and housing censuses have been carried out in Algeria in 1967, 1977, 1987, 1998, and 2008. The next census is in 2016.

[edit] Antigua and Barbuda

A Population & Housing Census was carried out in 2001.

[edit] Argentina

National population census are carried out in Argentina roughly every ten years, the last one being in 2001.

More about census, see: National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina.

[edit] Austria

The Austrian census is run by the Statistik Austria. It is carried out every ten years, the last one being in 2001.

[edit] Australia

The Australian census is operated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It is currently conducted every five years, the last occurrence being on August 8, 2006. Past Australian censuses were conducted in 1911, 1921, 1933, 1947, 1954, and 1961 - 2006 every five years. In 2006, for the first time, Australians were able to complete their census online.

[edit] Azerbaijan

Population censuses have been taken in Azerbaijan under Russian/Soviet rule in 1897, 1926, 1937, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989. Beginning in 1991, two more census have been carried out in Azerbaijan: one in 1999 and one in 2009.[19]

[edit] Bangladesh

Population censuses were conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) in 1974, 1981, 1991 and 2001.

[edit] Barbados

Censuses on population size in Barbados are conducted by the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS), the last major census conducted was 2000, and one is scheduled for 2010.

[edit] Benin

Population censuses have been taken in Benin in 1978, 1992 and 2002.

[edit] Bolivia

Population and housing censuses have been carried out in Bolivia in 1992 and 2001.

[edit] Bosnia-Herzegovina

A census was taken 1991 and a future will take 2011

[edit] Brazil

The Brazilian census is carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics every 10 years. The last one was in 2000. Earlier censuses were taken in 1872 (the first), 1900, 1920, 1941, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1991.

Brazil's Demographic Census is one of the most hierarchical collection of census data in the world. Its hierarchies include: Brazil (Country), Major Regions, States, Macro-regions, micro-regions, municipalities, districts, sub-districts, Neighborhoods and census tracts.

Depending on the administrative hierarchy, some types of data are not published to respect confidentiality.

For example:

1. The lower area of data collection is the census tract, with approximately 300 households, and information is collected on age, condition of the home, gender, income, among others.

2. Districts: information on race, color, religion, disability, etc.

3. Municipalities (cities): in addition to the information already described, there is information of GDP, industrial production, agricultural production, migration between cities to study or work, to live migration, inflation, employment rates, number of industries, the quantity of trade, etc. Information is collected with handheld computers equipped with GPS receivers and digitized maps.

For more information, see the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

[edit] Bulgaria

Bulgarian governors organized a national census soon after the liberation of the Bulgarian lands. In 1881 a census took place in the Principality, while in 1884 a census was organized in Eastern Rumelia. The first census covering the unified state took place in 1888.

Since these first accounts, Bulgarian authorities had organized several population censuses: 1892, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1920, 1926, 1934, 1946, 1956, 1965, 1975, 1985, 1992 and 2001.

The data provided in the Bulgarian censuses from 1888 until WW-II is regarded as highly reliable according to the standards of the time. The Bulgarian leading statisticians of the period were generally educated in Western universities and participated vividly in the international cooperation, therefore insisted and succeeded in introducing the best practices of the time. The quality of the data provided of later censuses is a matter of debate.

[edit] Canada

The Canadian census is run by Statistics Canada. The 1666 census of New France was conducted by French intendant Jean Talon, when he took a census to ascertain the number of people living in New France. The method and data was later used when Canada was founded 280 years later. The individual provinces (sometimes in conjunction with each other) conducted censuses in the 19th century and before. In 1871, Canada's first formal census was conducted, which counted the population of Nova Scotia, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Quebec.

Censuses in Canada are conducted in five-year intervals. The last two censuses were conducted in 2001 and 2006. Censuses taken in mid-decade (1976, 1986, 1996, etc.) are referred to as quinquennial censuses. Others are referred to as decennial censuses. The first quinquennial census was conducted in 1956.

For the 2006 Census of Canada, respondents were able, for the first time, to choose to complete their census questionnaire online. Other options for answering the questionnaire include postal mail (using a pre-paid envelope) and telephone (using an 800 number).

[edit] Alberta

In the Province of Alberta, Section 57 of its Municipal Government Act (MGA)[20] enables municipalities to perform their own censuses on any given year. An official municipal census must be conducted no earlier than April 1 and no later than June 30 of the same year, according to the MGA's Determination of Population Regulation.[21] If municipalities choose to make their census count official, the new population must be submitted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs[22] prior to September 1 of the year the census was performed. The latest census counts for Alberta's municipalities are released in the Ministry's annual Official Population List[23] publication.

The Alberta Population website builds upon the data provided by the Province and Statistics Canada. It compares municipal and federal census results by municipality, analyses historic population trends by municipality, and provides detailed annual population summaries.[24]

[edit] Chile

National population censuses are carried out in Chile every ten years by the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas, or National Statistics Institute), the last one being in 2002.

[edit] China

Population censuses have been taken in the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1913, 1944, 1953, 1964, 1982, 1990 and 2000.[25] These were the world's biggest censuses as they attempted to count every man, woman and child in the most populous nation in the world. Some 6 million enumerators were engaged in the 2000 census. The next national population census will start on November 1, 2010.[26]

Between National Population Censuses, 1% National Population Sample Surveys were taken in 1987, 1995, 2005 and 0.1% National Population Sample Surveys have been taken annually since 2000.[27]

National agricultural, economic, and industrial censuses are also taken on a regular basis. The first economic census was taken in 2004 and the second 2008.[28]

[edit] Costa Rica

Costa Rica carried out its 9th population census in 2000. INEC, National Institute of Statistics and Census is in charge of conduct these censuses. Past Costa Rican censuses were conducted in 1864, 1883, 1892, 1927, 1950, 1963, 1973 and 1984.

[edit] Czech Republic

Census in the Czech Republic is carried out every 10 years by the Czech Statistical Office. The last census was taken in 2001. Earlier censuses were taken in 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910, 1921, 1930, 1950, 1961, 1970, 1980 and 1991.

[edit] Denmark

The first Danish census was in 1700-1701, and contained statistical information about adult men. Only about half of it still exists. A census of school children was taken during the 1730s.

Following these early undertakings, the first census to attempt completely covering all citizens (including women and children who had previously been listed only as numbers) of Denmark-Norway was taken in 1769.[29] At that point there were 797 584 citizens in the kingdom. Georg Christian Oeder took a statistical census in 1771 which covered Copenhagen, Sjælland, Møn, and Bornholm.

After that, censuses followed somewhat regularly in 1787, 1801, and 1834, and between 1840 and 1860, the censuses were taken every five years, and then every ten years until 1890. Special censuses for Copenhagen were taken in 1885 and 1895.

In the 20th century, censuses were taken every five years from 1901 to 1921, and then every ten years from 1930. The last traditional census was taken in 1970.

A limited population census based on registers was taken in 1976. From 1981 and each year onwards information that corresponds to a population and housing census is retrieved from registers. Denmark was the first country in the world to conduct these censuses from administrative registers. The most important registers are the Population Register (Det Centrale Personregister), the Building and Dwelling Register and the Enterprise Register. The central statistical office, Statistics Denmark is responsible for compiling these data. This information is available online in the Statbank Denmark[30].

It is possible to search a portion of the Danish censuses online at the Dansk Demografisk Database[31], and also view scanned versions at Arkivalier Online[32].

[edit] Egypt

The Statistical Department of the Ministry of Finance conducted the first census in 1882, which considered as a preparatory step; the first true population census was conducted in 1897. Thereafter, censuses were conducted at ten-year intervals in 1907, 1917, 1927 and so on.

[edit] Estonia

Population censuses have been taken in Estonia in 1881, 1897, 1922, 1934, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989 and 2000.[33] The responsible institution is the Statistics Estonia.[34]

[edit] Ethiopia

Three censuses have been taken in Ethiopia: 1984, 1994 and in 2007. The responsible institution is the Central Statistical Agency.

Most of the census in 2007 was taken in August, while the Somali Region and the Afar Region were not covered. The northern Afar region is a remote, hot and arid area. The eastern Somali region (Ogaden) hosts a large nomadic Somali population and is a conflict area where Ethiopian regular forces are fighting against Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

[edit] Finland

The first population census was taken in 1749 when Finland was a part of Sweden. The most recent census took place on December 31, 2000.

[edit] France

The census in France is carried out by INSEE. Since 2004, a partial census is carried out every year, and the results published as averages over 5 years.

[edit] Germany

The first systematic population on the European continent was taken in 1719 in Prussia (roughly corresponding to today's northern Germany and western Poland).

The first large-scale census in the German Empire took place in 1895. Attempts at introducing a census in West Germany sparked strong popular resentment in the 1980s since many quite personal questions were asked. Some campaigned for a boycott. In the end the Constitutional Court stopped the census in 1980 and 1983. The last census was in 1987. Germany has since used population samples in combination with statistical methods, in place of a full census.

[edit] Greece

Census takes place every 10 years and is carried out by the National Statistical Service of Greece.[35] Last census was in 2001.

[edit] Guatemala

Modern population censuses have been taken in Guatemala in 1930, 1950, 1964, 1973, 1981, 1994 and in 2002. Controversial cenuses include those in 1950 and 1964 (misclassification of the Maya population) and 1994 (generally questioned). About 14,000,000 people live in Guatemala as of July 2009.

Relaciones Geográficas of Mexico and Guatemala, 1577-1585.

On May 25, 1577, King Philip II of Spain ordered by royal cédula the preparation of a general description of Spain's holdings in the Indies. Instructions and a questionnaire, issued in 1577 by the Office of the Cronista Mayor-Cosmógrafo, were distributed to local officials in the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru to direct the gathering of information. The questionnaire, composed of fifty items, was designed to elicit basic information about the nature of the land and the life of its peoples. The replies, known as "relaciones geográficas," were written between 1579 and 1585 and were returned to the Cronista Mayor-Cosmógrafo in Spain by the Council of the Indies.

[edit] Hong Kong

Census takes place every 10 years and by-census between two censuses by the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong. The last census was conducted in 2001 and the last by-census was taken in 2006.

[edit] Hungary

Official decennial censuses have been taken in Hungary since 1870; the latest one – in line with the recommendations of the United Nations and the Statistical Office of the European Union – was carried out in 2001. Starting from 1880 the Hungarian census system was based on native language (the language spoken at home in the early life of the person and at the time of the survey), vulgar language (the most frequently used language in the family), and other spoken languages.

[edit] Iceland

The first Icelandic census took place in 1703, following upon the first Danish census of 1700–1701. Further censuses were carried out in 1801, 1845 and 1865. The 1703 exercise was the first ever census to cover all inhabitants of an entire country, mentioning the name, age and social position of each individual. All of the information still exists, although some of the original documents have been lost.

The setting up, in 1952, of the National Registry (Þjóðskrá) eliminated the need for censuses. All those born in Iceland, and all new residents, are automatically registered. Individuals are identified in the registry by means of a national identification number (the so-called kennitala), a number composed of the date of birth in the format ddmmyy and four additional digits, the third of which is a control digit, and the last of which indicates the century in which the person was born (9 for the 1900s and 0 for the 2000s).

The National Registry doubles as an electoral register. Likewise, all bank accounts are linked to the national identification of the owner (companies and institutions all have their own identification numbers).

[edit] India

The decennial census of India is the primary source of information about the demographic characteristics of the population of India. The 2011 census will be the largest census in the history of mankind.[36]

The first census in India in modern times was conducted in 1889. Since then, a population census has been carried out every 10 years. The latest census commenced on 1 April, 2010. It will create a National Population Register with photographs and fingerprints of every resident. All usual residents of India will also be provided with their Unique ID numbers and National Identity Cards. The census is carried out by the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Delhi, an office in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, under the 1948 Census of India Act. The act gives Central Government many powers like to notify a date for Census, power to ask for the services of any citizen for census work. The law makes it compulsory for every citizen to answer the census questions truthfully. The Act provides penalties for giving false answers or not giving answers at all to the census questionnaire. One of the most important provisions of law is the guarantee for the maintenance of secrecy of the information collected at the census of each individual. The census records are not open to inspection and also not admissible in evidence.

The census is conducted in two phases: first, house listing and house numbering phase and second, the actual population enumeration phase. The census is carried out by the canvassing method. In this method, each and every household is visited and the information is collected by specially trained enumerator. They collect data related to households e.g. number of members, water & electricity supply, ownership of land, vehicles, computers and other assets and services. In the second phase, total population is counted and statistics related to individuals are collected.[36]

[edit] Indonesia

The first population census was done during the colonial era, 1930. Before that, a non-overall census was already conducted in 1920. After that census was done irregularly. The first census after independence was 1961, followed by 1971. Since 1980 it is conducted regularly every 10 years. In between, there is also economical census (every 10 years, five years after population census) and agricultural census (three years after population census).

[edit] Iran

Main article: Demographics of Iran

The Statistical Center of Iran carries out nationwide population and housing censuses every 10 years, the last of which occurred in 2006 (1385 AP). In the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on Article 4 of the Act of the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), the census shall be implemented once every 10 years according to the Presidential decree. So far there have been 6 incidences of population census in Iran in the years 1956, 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, and 2006; all taken in accordance with scientific methods.

[edit] Ireland

The census in Ireland is carried out by the Central Statistics Office.[37] The census is carried out every five years, with more detailed information collected in years ending in 1 and less in the years ending in 6. The 1976 census was cancelled as a cost-saving measure, but a supplementary census was held in 1979 after it became apparent that the 1970s had seen major demographic changes.[38] The census scheduled for 2001 was postponed until 2002 due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.[39]

The most recent census took place on 23 April 2006.[40] According to the 2006 form, "any person who fails or refuses to provide information or who knowingly provides false information may be subject to a fine of up to €25,000," under the Central Statistics Act 1993. On the CSO website, instructions for non-English speaking residents of Ireland were available. They were mock copies of the census forms, with all headings/questions etc. being translated into a particular language. These were not to be filled out, but were only a guide on how to fill out the English or Irish form. This census also asked two new questions relating to ownership of PCs and Internet connection.

Data from the 1911 Census for the island of Ireland was made publicly available in 1961,[41] and are being published online.[42] Subsequent census records will be made publicly available 100 years after collection.[41]

Questions relating to the ability to speak the Irish Language are included in the census. The figures obtained have been criticised as inflated by cognitive biases, such as response bias or wishful thinking. The 2006 census included an additional question on frequency of speaking Irish.


In June 2010, the 1901 census of Ireland became available on the internet.[43]

[edit] Israel

The first census in the state of Israel was held in November 1948, six months after its creation, to establish the population registry.[44] Subsequent censuses were conducted by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) in 1961, 1972, 1983 and 1995.[44] In these, 20% of households completed a detailed survey and the remainder a shorter questionaire.[44] There is no legal requirement to hold a census within a given interval; in practice, the ICBS requests and the government decides.[44] The next Census to be held was postponed from 2006 to late 2008/early 2009.[44] Only the detailed survey of 20% will be carried out, as a cost-saving measure.[44]

[edit] Italy

The census in Italy is carried out by ISTAT every 10 years. The last four were in 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001.

[edit] Japan

Japan collects census information every five years. The figures show the English translation of the 2005 census form. The form solicits information on name, sex, relationship to head of household, year and month of birth, marital status, nationality, number of members of household, type and nature of dwelling, floor area of dwelling, number of hours worked during the week prior to October 1, employment status, name of employer and type of business, and kind of work.

[edit] Jordan

The first population census after the independence in 1946 was taken in 1952. It did only count the number of people in the households and could therefore be considered only to be a housing census. The first real complete census was taken in 1961. The following censuses have been taken in 1979, 1994 and 2004. The distribution of Palestinians and Jordanians within the population has been a politically sensitive issue since the Six-Day war in 1967.

[edit] Kenya

Census in Kenya was first held in 1948, when Kenya was still a Colony administrated by the British. Since 1969 census has been taken every ten years. The last census to date was in 2009.[45]

[edit] Kosovo

Kosovo, administrated by the UN since 1999, declared independence in 2008. Kosovo government is planning a general population census for 2011.[46] The first census was conducted in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1921.

[edit] Latvia

The most recent census in Latvia was in 2000. Before that, it was about 6 censuses, most part of these previous censuses was undertaken during Soviet (USSR) control. The census in Latvia is carried out by Centrālā Statistikas Pārvalde (Central Statistical Bureau).

[edit] Lebanon

No census has been conducted in Lebanon since 1932.[47] It indicated a population of 861,399 Lebanese.[48] Various estimates of the population have been taken since; in 1956 it was estimated a population of 1,411,416, with 54% Christian and 44% Muslim. Conducting a census since then has been complicated by various conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s.[49]

[edit] Malaysia

The census in Malaysia is carried out every 10 years, like many nations, since 1960 (with the exception of the fourth census, which was carried out in 1991). The next census will be carried out from July 6 to August 22, 2010, the most recent was in 2000.

[edit] Macedonia

The foundation of the Republic of Macedonia followed the break up of the former Yugoslav Republic in 1991. The first population and housing census was taken in the summer 1994. The second census was taken in the autumn 2002. Both censuses were observed by international experts due to the sensitive issue regarding the ethnic distribution (Macedonian vs Albanian population).

[edit] Mauritius

Population and housing censuses for Mauritius was collected in 1972, 1983, and 2000; although respondents were asked to identify their race/ethnic origin in the 1972 census, this question was dropped from the following censuses because "the government felt that it was a divisive question".[50] The Statistics Act of 2000 directed that all official censuses be conducted by the Central Statistics Office of Mauritius, as well as serve as the central depository for this information.[51]

[edit] Mexico

Population censuses are taken every 10th year in Mexico. The latest have been in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 (the 12th census). After 1990 the Mexican census has been taken every 5 years.

[edit] Mozambique

The first census was taken in 1980. The second in 1997. The third was taken 1–14 August 2007.

[edit] Netherlands

The first census in the Netherlands was conducted in 1795, and the last in 1971. A law was produced on April 22, 1879, ordering a census to be conducted every ten years.

The census that was planned for 1981 was postponed and later cancelled. A call for privacy was responsible for the cancellation of any further census since 1991. Censuses are being conducted by the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek since 1899. The censuses today are mostly (population, fiscal) register based, combined with surveying.

[edit] New Zealand

The census in New Zealand is carried out by Statistics New Zealand (Tatauranga Aotearoa), every five years. The last was on 7 March 2006. For the 2006 Census of New Zealand, respondents could choose to complete their census questionnaire online. See New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings.

[edit] Nepal

Population censuses are taken every 10th year in Nepal. The latest were in 1981, 1991 and 2001 (the 6th census.)

[edit] Nigeria

Population censuses have been taken in Nigeria during colonial time in 1866, 1871, 1896, 1901, 1911, 1921 and 1952. The censuses covered only the southern part of the country except for the 1952 census which was country wide, and the censuses before 1921 were based on administrative estimates rather than on an actual enumeration.

Censuses during the independence were taken 1963, 1973, 1991 and 2006. The results from 1973 and 2006 were highly disputed. The preliminary results for 2006 indicates a population of 140,000,000. 700,000 enumerators were engaged in this operation.

[edit] Norway

The two first male censuses was conducted during the 1660s and 1701. Later statistical censuses were held in 1769, 1815, 1835, 1845, and 1855. Norway's first nominative, complete census was taken in 1801, when Norway still was ruled by the Oldenburg dynasty of Denmark-Norway. The scope of the census followed the de jure principle, so military persons should be included as well as foreigners if they were residents. The 1865, 1875 and 1900 censuses are digitized, and are made searchable on the internet. The census records are made public available when 100 years have passed. Since 1900, a census has been conducted every ten years. (However, the 1940 census was postponed to 1946.) Since 2001 the population census has been combined with the housing statistics.

[edit] Oman

Censuses have been taken in the Sultanate of Oman in 1993 and 2003.

[edit] Pakistan

The first Pakistan Census after the proclamation of independence of Pakistan was conducted in 1951. It was decreed that censuses have to be carried out once in 10 years. The second census was conducted in 1961. However the third one was conducted in 1972 because of war with India. The fourth census was held in 1981.The fifth census was conducted delayed in March 1998. The sixth census of Pakistan is planned in October 2008.[52]

[edit] Peru

The first census in Peru was carried out in 1836. The eleventh and latest one was the 2007 Census and was carried out by Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática in August 2007.

[edit] Philippines

The census of the Philippines is enumerated every 5 years (beginning on 1960, except in 2005 where it was moved to 2007 due to budgetary constraints) and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats (congressional apportionment) and government program funding.

The census is performed by the National Statistics Office. The first official census in the Philippines was carried out by the Spanish government pursuant to a royal decree calling for the counting of persons living as of the midnight of December 31, 1877. The first door-to-door census was conducted in 1903 to fulfill Public Act 467 which was approved by the U.S. Congress in July 1902. The last national census was held in 2007 and the next census is scheduled for 2010. For years between the censuses, the NSO issues estimates made using surveys and statistical models.

[edit] Poland

The census in Poland is carried out by GUS every circa 10 years. The last one occurred in 2002 between May 21 and June 8. During the national census in 2002 the following censuses were conducted at the same time: National Population and Housing Census and National Agricultural Census.

[edit] Portugal

The first census in Portugal was carried out in 1864. The census in Portugal is carried out by Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) every 10 years. The last one occurred in 2001.

[edit] Romania

The first census in Romania was carried out in 1859. It is now carried out every ten years by the Institutul Naţional de Statistică (INSSE). The last census was in 2002; the next one will be in 2011.[53]

[edit] Russia/USSR

In Russia, the first census of the tax-payers was made in 1722-23 by the order of Peter the Great (only men were counted), and was ordered to be repeated every 20 years. The only complete Russian Empire Census was carried out in 1897. All-Union Population Censuses were carried out in the USSR (which included RSFSR and the other republics) in 1920 (urban only), 1926, 1937, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, and 1989. The first post-Soviet Russian Census was carried out in 2002. The next census is tentatively planned for 2010. Currently, the census is the responsibility of the Federal State Statistics Service.

[edit] Saudi Arabia

Population censuses have been taken in Saudi Arabia in 1962/63 (incomplete), 1974 (complete but not reliable), 1992 and 2004. An agriculture census was taken in 1999.

[edit] Serbia

The census takes place every 10 years. The last census was in 2002 (although having been planned for 2001), the previous one was in 1991 and the next is planned for 2011.

[edit] Slovenia

The first census of modern Slovenia was carried in 1991, after independence had been declared. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (Statistični urad Republike Slovenije) conducted the second census in 2002. Further censuses are planned for every 10 years.

[edit] South Africa

The first census of South Africa was taken in 1911. Several enumerations have occurred since then,[54] with the most recent two being carried out by Statistics South Africa in 1996 and 2001. The next South African census is planned for 2011.

[edit] Spain

The census in Spain is carried out by INE every 10 years. Although there has been an old tradition and like for making census in Spain, the oldest ones dating back to the 12th century (by Alfonso VII of the Kingdom of Castile), the first modern census was carried out in 1768 by Conde de Aranda, under the reign of Carlos III. The last four were in 1971, 1981, 1991, and 2001.

[edit] Sri Lanka

The census in Sri Lanka is carried out by the Department of Census and Statistics every 10 years, with the next one being planned for 2011.[55] The 2011 one being the first post-war census in three decades. The census will cover all Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions of the country. The last four were in 1963, 1971, 1981 and 2001 with a census estimate in 1989. The 2001 census was only carried out in 18 Districts due to the Sri Lankan Civil War.

[edit] Sudan

Population censuses have been carried out in Sudan in 1955/56, 1973 (national), 1983 (national) and 1993 (only north). A census was conduced in April 2008. Some areas were difficult to measure (e.g. Darfur, Juba and Malakal)

[edit] Sweden

The first population census in Sweden was carried out in 1749. The last population and housing census was carried out in 1990. It is planned to conduct population and housing censuses based on registers in the future.

[edit] Switzerland

In Switzerland, the Federal Population Census (German: Eidgenössische Volkszählung, French: Recensement fédéral de la population, Italian: Censimento federale della popolazione, Romansh: Dumbraziun federala dal pievel) has been carried out every 10 years starting in 1850. The census was initiated by Federal Councillor Stefano Franscini, who evaluated the data of the first census all by himself after Parliament failed to provide the necessary funds.[56] The census is now being conducted by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

Data being collected include population data (citizenship, place of residence, place of birth, position in household, number of children, religion, languages, education, profession, place of work, etc.), household data (number of individuals living in the household, etc.), accommodation data (surface area, amount of rent paid, etc.) and building data (geocoordinates, time of construction, number of floors, etc.). Participation is compulsory and reached 99.87% of the population in 2000.[57]

Starting in 2010, the census will cease to be conducted through written questionnaires distributed nationwide. Instead, data in existing population registers will be used. That data will be supplemented with a biannual questionnaire sample of 200,000 people as well as regular microcensuses.

[edit] Syria

The first population census in Syria was taken by the French Mandatory Regime in 1921-22. This is however not considered reliable. Censuses during independence have been taken 1947, 1960 (the first comprehensive demographic investigation), 1970, 1976 (a sample census), 1981, 1994 and 2004.

[edit] Taiwan

The first census in Taiwan was conducted in 1905, while Taiwan was under Japanese rule.[58]

[edit] Turkey

The Turkish census is run by the Turkish Statistical Institute. The first census in Turkey was conducted in 1927. After 1935, it took place every 5 years until 1990. Now, the census takes place every 10 years. The last census was in 2000. It can be noted that the census enumeration takes place on one single day in Turkey (in other countries it takes 1–2 weeks). This required some 900,000 enumerators in 2000. The 15th census based on improved geographical information systems is planned for 2010.

A census was taken in the Ottoman Empire 1831-38 by Sultan Mahmud II (1808–1839) as a part of the reform movement Tanzimat. Christian and Jewish men were counted but the female population was excluded.

[edit] Uganda

The first censuses in Uganda were taken 1911, 1921 and 1931. It was done in a rather primitive way. Enumeration unit was 'huts' and not individuals. More scientific censuses were taken 1948 and 1959 where the enumeration unit was persons. The census was however divided into two separate enumerations, one for Africans, and one for the non-African population. The censuses during independence 1969, 1980, 1991 were taken jointly for all races. The censuses 1980 and 1991 included housing information and in addition a larger questionnaire for a sample of the population. However, the questionnaires for the 1980 were lost and only provisional figures are available from this census.

The census in 2002 involved some 50,000 enumerators and supervisors. It covered several topics including: population and housing; agriculture; and Micro- and small Enterprises administered at individual/household level. The Preliminary Results were published two weeks after the enumeration. The Final Results were released in March 2005, while the analytical findings and the district level results were scheduled to be released in the second quarter of 2006.[59]

[edit] Ukraine

The first post-Soviet Ukrainian Census was carried out by State Statistics Committee of Ukraine in 2001, twelve years after the last All-Union census in 1989.

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] History of censuses in the UK

In the 7th century, Dál Riata (now western Scotland and northern County Antrim in Northern Ireland) was the first territory in what is now the UK to conduct a census, with what was called the "Tradition of the Men of Alba" (Senchus fer n-Alban). The Domesday Book of 1086 in England contained listings of households but its coverage was not complete and its intent was not the same as modern censuses.

Following the influence of Malthus and concerns stemming from his An Essay On The Principle Of Population the UK census as we know it today started in 1801. This was championed by John Rickman who managed the first four up to 1831, partly to ascertain the number of men able to fight in the Napoleonic wars. Rickman's 12 reasons - set out in 1798 and repeated in Parliamentary debates - for conducting a UK census included the following justifications:

  • "the intimate knowledge of any country must form the rational basis of legislation and diplomacy"
  • "an industrious population is the basic power and resource of any nation, and therefore its size needs to be known"
  • "the number of men who were required for conscription to the militia in different areas should reflect the area"s population'
  • "there were defence reasons for wanting to know the number of seamen"
  • "the need to plan the production of corn and thus to know the number of people who had to be fed"
  • "a census would indicate the Government's intention to promote the public good" and
  • "the life insurance industry would be stimulated by the results."

The census has been conducted every ten years since 1801 and most recently in 2001. The first four censuses (1801–1831) were mainly headcounts and contained little personal information.

The 1841 Census, conducted by the General Register Office, was the first to record the names of everyone in a household or institution. However, their relationship to the head of the household was not noted, although sometimes this can be inferred from the occupation shown (e.g. servant). Those under the age of 15 had their proper ages listed, but for those who were older the ages were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest five years, although this rule was not strictly adhered to. Precise birthplaces were not given - at best the birthplace can be narrowed down to the county in which the person was living.

From 1851 onwards the census shows the exact age and relationship to the head of household for each individual; the place of birth was also listed, but with varying degrees of precision. Sometimes those who were born abroad have the annotation B.S. or British Subject.

The censuses are reasonably accurate. However, ages in particular are frequently shown incorrectly, though often the difference is only one year; in general the younger the individual the more accurate the age shown. Birthplaces often vary from one census to the next: a common error is to show the place where the census was taken as the birthplace, but most of the variations in birthplace can be accounted for by changes in geographical scale (for example, the nearest town being shown instead of the precise village, or a city being shown instead of the relevant suburb).

The censuses are also remarkably complete - though inevitably a small percentage of the population was not recorded for one reason or another, and in some cases the records are missing or damaged (notably in 1861). Furthermore, all censuses of Ireland before 1901 have been lost or destroyed.

Because of World War II, there was no census in 1941. However, following the passage into law (on 5 September 1939) of the National Registration Act a population count was carried out on 29 September 1939, which was, in effect, a census.

[edit] Censuses in the modern day

The census of England & Wales is undertaken for the government by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for policy and planning purposes, and statistical information is made available in published reports and on the ONS's website. The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) conducts its own census, while the census in Northern Ireland is carried out by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Public access to the census returns is restricted under the terms of the 100-year rule; the most recent returns made available to researchers are those of the 1911 Census for England and Wales. The Scottish 1911 census will be available in 2011.

The 2001 census was the first year in which the government asked about religion. Perhaps encouraged by a hoax chain letter that started in New Zealand, 390,000 people entered their religion as Jedi (See Jedi census phenomenon.)

All of the British censuses from 1841-1911 have been transcribed and indexed and are available online, although GROS will not be releasing the Scottish 1911 returns until 2011; there is a joint project between the National Archives of Ireland and Library and Archives Canada to digitize the 1901 and 1911 censuses for the whole of Ireland, and it is possible this will be completed by the end of 2007.[citation needed] The next UK census is planned for 2011.[60]

[edit] United States

The United States Constitution mandates that a census be taken every ten years in order to apportion the number of members of the United States House of Representatives among the several states. Census statistics are also used in order to apportion federal funding for many social and economic programs.

The first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790 by Federal marshals. Census takers went door to door and recorded the name of the head of the household and the number of people in each household. Slaves were enumerated, but only three out of five were counted for apportionment. American Indians, being neither taxed nor considered during apportionment, were not counted in the census. The first census counted 3.9 million people, less than half the population of New York City in 2000.

During the 19th century and through the 1940 census, enumeration was accomplished through political districts. Each ward was responsible for producing a census. The usual method in urban areas was to assign the task to precinct leaders, who in turn would hire and send out "census takers", equipped with pencils, a sheaf of forms, and assigned areas to canvass door-by-door. These census takers would return their forms to the precinct office, which forwarded them to the ward office, where the pencilled-in data was transcribed in ink to bound volumes. This transcription process resulted in numerous misspellings if the worker's handwriting was hard to read, as well as omissions of people who were not home on the day the canvasser was sent out. In rural areas, canvassers often had to cover miles of uninhabited rural territory to find small towns and isolated farms, missing many or simply refusing to travel the full distances required for one day's pay. Canvasser supervisors often were unaware of data omissions due to the intentional isolation of many people in the countryside.

From 1950 onward, census forms were mailed to every address on record with the United States Post Office, including the Armed Services Postal System, in an effort to enhance completeness of the data collected. Beginning in 1970, it was made illegal to fail to return a completed census form, which many were discovered to have done in the previous two decades' censuses. Canvassers came to be used only to verify a random sample of censuses received, and to attempt to complete records for people who still failed to return their census forms on time. Additionally in 1970, computer technology was introduced to consolidate the individual-completed census forms and canvassers' followup forms, in lieu of pen-and-ink transcriptions to official census ledgers.

The 2000 census counted over 281 million people. In 1891, the building containing the accumulated census records for 1890 caught fire, destroying all but a few pages of that decade's census: canvassers records were routinely destroyed once transferred to the official ledgers. In 1902, Congress established the Census Bureau as a federal agency.

In recent times, there have been two forms of questionnaire, long and short. The long form and its additional questions about matters such as daily commute times, housing unit factors, etc., has been replaced by the American Community Survey (ACS). Computer algorithms (based on complex sampling rules) determined which form was mailed to a given household, with one in six receiving the long form. This was supplemented by census workers going door to door to talk to those who failed to return the forms. In addition to a simple count of residents, the Census Bureau collects a variety of statistics, on topics ranging from ethnicity to the presence of indoor plumbing. While some critics claim that census questions are an invasion of privacy[61], the data collected by every question is either required to enforce some federal law (such as the Voting Rights Act) or to administer some federal program. The United States Congress gives approval to every question asked on the census.

Despite a massive effort, the Census Bureau has never been able to count every individual, leading to controversy about whether to use statistical methods to supplement the numbers for some purposes, as well as arguments over how to improve the actual head count. The Supreme Court ruled that only an actual head count can be used to apportion Congressional seats; however, cities and minority representatives have complained that urban residents and minorities are undercounted. In several cases, the Census Bureau has recounted an area with disputed figures, provided the local government paid for the time and effort. The state of Utah protested the figures of the 2000 decennial census because it stood to gain a seat in the House of Representatives, but North Carolina gained it instead. Had the Census Bureau been mandated to count the numbers of Utahns living overseas, including many Mormon missionaries, Utah might have gained the seat.[62]

To minimize the burden on individuals and to provide improved data, the Bureau has prepared several alternate methods for gathering economic, demographic, and social information, including the American Community Survey and record linking of depersonalized administrative records with other administrative records and Census Bureau surveys.

By law (92 Stat. 915, Public Law 95-416, enacted on October 5, 1978), individual census records are sealed for 72 years.[63] This figure has remained unchanged since before the 1978 law, reflecting an era when life expectancy was under 60 years, and thus attempts to protect individuals' privacy by prohibiting the release of personal information during individuals' lifetimes. The individual census data most recently released to the public was the 1930 census, released in 2002. Aggregate census data are released when available.

[edit] Local

In addition to the decennial federal census, local censuses have also been conducted, for example, in Massachusetts, which conducted a statewide census every five years until 1985. Additionally, each community in Massachusetts takes a municipal census each year. Some states conducted limited censuses for various purposes, and these are typically located in state archives.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Shepard, Jon; Robert W. Greene (2003). Sociology and You. Ohio: Glencoe McGraw-Hill. pp. A–22. ISBN 0078285763. http://www.glencoe.com/catalog/index.php/program?c=1675&s=21309&p=4213&parent=4526. 
  2. ^ Sullivan, Arthur; Steven M. Sheffrin (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458: Pearson Prentice Hall. p. 334. ISBN 0-13-063085-3. http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZ3R9&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbCategoryId=&PMDbProgramId=12881&level=4. 
  3. ^ United Nations (2008). Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses. Statistical Papers: Series M No. 67/Rev.2. p8. ISBN 9789211615050.
  4. ^ The Census and Privacy.
  5. ^ Managing Confidentiality and Learning about SEIFA
  6. ^ "History of China. (Japanese Wikipedia)". http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2. 
  7. ^ "Census - The Canadian Encyclopedia". Statistics Canada. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0020060. "The first recorded census took place over 4000 years ago in China." 
  8. ^ Jeffrey Hays. "China - Facts and Details: Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220)". http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=39&catid=2&subcatid=2. 
  9. ^ Twitchett, D., Loewe, M., and Fairbank, J.K. Cambridge History of China: The Ch'in and Han Empires 221 B.C.-A.D. 220. Cambridge University Press (1986), p. 240.
  10. ^ ibid.
  11. ^ Nishijima (1986), 595–596.
  12. ^ "History of China. (Japanese Wikipedia)". http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2. 
  13. ^ H. Yoon (1985). "An early Chinese idea of a dynamic environmental cycle", GeoJournal 10 (2), pp. 211-212.
  14. ^ Scheidel, Walter. Rome and China: comparative perspectives on ancient world empires. Oxford University Press (2009), p. 28.
  15. ^ al-Qādī1, Wadād (July 2008). "Population Census and Land Surveys under the Umayyads (41–132/661–750)". Der Islam 83 (2): 341–416. doi:10.1515/ISLAM.2006.015. 
  16. ^ UNFPA Projects in Afghanistan.
  17. ^ Albania: 2001 census, official web site. Retrieved on 19 June 2009
  18. ^ Albania: 2001 census, individual questionnaire used by enumerators. Retrieved on 19 June 2009
  19. ^ Population Census Gets Under Way In Azerbaijan. Radio Free Europe. April 14, 2009. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  20. ^ Municipal Government Act (MGA)
  21. ^ Determination of Population Regulation
  22. ^ Ministry of Municipal Affairs
  23. ^ Official Population List
  24. ^ Alberta Population
  25. ^ http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjgb/rkpcgb/index.htm
  26. ^ http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2009-05/06/content_1306165.htm
  27. ^ http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjdt/gjtjjdt/t20091221_402608717.htm
  28. ^ http://www.stats.gov.cn/was40/gjtjj_en_detail.jsp?channelid=4920&record=1
  29. ^ Census 1769.
  30. ^ Statbank Denmark
  31. ^ Dansk Demografisk Database
  32. ^ Arkivalier Online
  33. ^ Censuses in Estonia.
  34. ^ Statistics Estonia
  35. ^ Γενικη Γραμματεια Εσυε.
  36. ^ a b [1]
  37. ^ "CSO Census Home Page". http://www.cso.ie/census/default.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 
  38. ^ "Census: Historical perspective". CSO. http://www.irisheu-silc.net/census/Historical_Perspective.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 
  39. ^ "Census 2002 Results". CSO. 2002. http://www.cso.ie/census/Commentary.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-09. "The census originally planned for 29 April 2001 was postponed because of the Foot and Mouth disease situation pertaining at the time." 
  40. ^ "Census 2006: Preliminary Report" (PDF). CSO. July 2006. http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/2006PreliminaryReport.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 
  41. ^ a b "Access to old records". CSO. http://www.cso.ie/census/Access_to_Records.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 
  42. ^ "Census of Ireland, Dublin 1911". National Archives of Ireland. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 
  43. ^ 1901 Census of Ireland goes online
  44. ^ a b c d e f Kamen, Charles S. (February, 2005). "The 2008 Israel Integrated Census of Population and Housing: Basic conception and procedure" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 1. http://www.cbs.gov.il/mifkad/census2008_e.pdf. Retrieved 2008-10-12. 
  45. ^ Census kicks off. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. August 24, 2009.
  46. ^ Republic of Kosovo sets the date for its first census
  47. ^ al-Issawi, Omar (June 4, 2009). Lebanon's Palestinian refugees. Al Jazeera.
  48. ^ Rolland, John C. (2003). Lebanon: current issues and background." Nova Publishers. p. 65.
  49. ^ Lebanon. Country studies.
  50. ^ "2010 Round of Censuses: Learning from the 2000 Round Country position: Mauritius February 2006" (accessed 3 April 2009).
  51. ^ "Central Statistics Office: The Statistics Act 2000".
  52. ^ Pakistan Census process to begin in October, 2008.
  53. ^ The next census will take place in 2011.
  54. ^ South Africa - Population.
  55. ^ http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2010/05/16/new30.asp
  56. ^ History of the Federal Population Census, Swiss Federal Statistical Office, accessed October 2007.
  57. ^ Overview of the Federal Population Census, Swiss Federal Statistical Office, accessed October 2007.
  58. ^ The Modernization of Taiwan.
  59. ^ "Country submission for Uganda: The 2010 World Programme on Population and Housing Censuses", Africa Symposium on the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Censuses (Cape Town, South Africa, 30 January - 2 February 2006, accessed 3 April 2009).
  60. ^ National Statistics Website.
  61. ^ Sunderland, Nate (2010-03-25). "What is the government going to do with your census data?". Rexburg Standard Journal (Rexburg, Idaho, United States). http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/news/article_06335cd8-37ba-11df-922a-001cc4c03286.html. Retrieved 2010-04-04. 
  62. ^ Justices Deal Utah a Setback In Its Bid to Gain a House Seat.
  63. ^ U.S. Census Bureau | History | Legislation 1974 - 1983.

[edit] References

[edit] External links



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