Bengaluru: The statistics for Bengaluru are mind boggling. The population in BBMP areas during 2011 census: 84,43,675, and the projected populaton in 2015: 1,01,96,920. Similarly the households in 2011:  21,01,831, and the projected households for 2015: 25,55,619. Area wise there were 16,000 blocks in 2011, while now in 2015 there are 18000.

There has been a 21% rise in both population and households, and a 13% increase in Blocks. But what could be stress factor on the quality of the socio economic survey and the 18000 enurmerators, is that each them will have to cover a minimum of 140 households and that figure is  multipled by the number of questions on the survey questionnaire, this would mean each enumertor obtaining genuine answers to a minimum of 7800 questions over the period of the survey which started on April 11th this year.

Yesterday was the last day to complete the survey and the enumerators were under tremendous pressure, especially those who haven’t been able to cover the designated households as per targets.

Some desperate enumerators called up citizens who were unavailable during the door-to-door visits, asking them to answer questions over phone. They have even obtained some information from neighbors.

This, however, is not right, said M Siddoji Rao, BBMP joint director (statistics) and nodal officer for census. “Seeking census data over phone isn’t correct. They have to do a door- to-door survey. I will inquire into this,” he said. 

It was reported in the TOI that on Wednesday evening, Jayanagar resident Reshma Raman got a call from an enumerator saying, “Sir, you weren’t around when we visited your house for census. I will call you tomorrow, please share your details then.”

“Though the exercise kicked off on April 11th, till yesterday no one visited us. Had they called us earlier we could have met on a mutually convenient day. I wouldn’t blame the enumerator who called me. But I’m not sure if this is the way to conduct a census. Is a month’s time enough?” asked Reshma.