17.2 percent households without all 35 items in Census questionnaire

IMPHAL, April 10: Data collected on houses, household amenities and assets during Census 2011, Manipur by approximately 6000 enumerators and 1000 supervisors were release today by director Census Operation, Manipur Y Thamkishore Singh at the office of the directorate of Census Operations, Manipur Porompat.

The enumerators had collected information on 35 items by visiting each and every household and canvassing a written questionnaire called the Houselist and House Schedule covering 51 towns and 2582 villages during June to August, 2010.

The reports were released during a press conference convened at the same venue by the director.

However 17.2 percent of the houses visited were found without any of the specific assets.

Speaking on the Census 2011, the director expressed that the census was conducted in two phases- houselisting and housing census- which was undertaken a few months before the second phase; and population enumeration.

Further elaborating on the issue, he added that the objective of the houselisting and housing census operations is to identify each building/census house and also to ascertain the quality of the census house.

Thamkishore further briefed the media persons that the fundamental principle is to cover the entire area of the state in a systematic manner without omission or duplication. The enumerator collected information on 35 items by visiting each and every household and canvassing a written questionnaire called the Houselist and House Schedule during June to August, 2010

Approximately six thousand enumerators and one thousand supervisors were engaged for this operation covering a the jurisdiction of all the nine districts of the state- Senapati, Tamenglong, Churchandpur, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Imphal West, Imphal East, Ukhrul and Chandel with 51 towns and 2582 villages.

Elaborating on the findings of the Census 2011, Thamkishore stated as per the Houselisting and Housing Census, the census houses increased from 4,92,371 to 6,09,967.

There is an increase of 1,17,593 houses for residential and partly residential purposes. There is an improvement in the construction material used for roof, wall and floor. Thus there is a substantial improvement in the quality of housing both in rural and urban areas.

As regards amenities available with the households, 48.3 percent of households are using tap, tube well, hand pump and covered well as the main source of drinking water while 38.6 per cent use tap water. Only 16.1 percent of households have source of water within the premises while 46.2 percent of households have to fetch water from a source located within 500 m in rural areas/100 m in urban areas and 37.8 percent still fetch drinking water from a source located more than 500 m away in the rural areas or 100 m in urban area.

As far as the main source of lighting is concerned, 68.3 percent households use electricity which shows an increase of 7.7 point since 2001. The rural-urban gap has reduced by 8.3 percentage points from 29.5 percent in 2001 to 21.2 percent in 2011. For any other source of lighting the State recorded highest growth rate compared to other states (Manipur 3.6 percent & India 0.2 percent).

31.1 percent of the households have bathing facility within the premises, showing an increase of 20.7 points over 2001.

52.9 percent of the households have drainage connectivity of which 48.8 percent have open drainage and 4.1 percent have closed drainage.

89.3 percent of the households have latrine facility within premises with 46.6 per cent households have water closet and 34.6 percent households have a pit latrine. There is 6.3 point decline in households having no latrine from 18.0 percent to 10.7 percent in 2011.

93.3 percent households have kitchen facility with 85.9 percent within premises and 7.4 percent outside premises. 69.1 percent of the households are using firewood/crop residue, cow dung cake/coal etc. but only 0.2 percent households use kerosene. There is an increase of 7.9 points in use of LPG from 21.8 percent in 2001 to 29.7 percent in 2011.

As regards mode of communication, there is an increase of 150 percent in television and radios/transistors. 9 percent of the households have Computer/Laptop with only 2.1 percent having internet facility. 57.5 percent households have telephone/mobile facility with 74.4 percent in urban and 48.9 percent in rural area. For use of radio the State recorded highest growth rate among other states (Manipur 54.4 percent & India 19.9 percent).

In the modes of transport 44.6 percent of the household are having bicycle, 19.8 percent two wheelers and 6 percent four wheelers. There is an increase of 8.7 points in two wheelers and 6 percent four wheelers. There is an increase of 8.7 points in two wheeler and 2.9 points in four wheelers and 6.6 points in bicycle. 29.6 percent of the households are availing banking facilities with 41.5 percent in urban and 23.5 percent in rural areas.

17.2 percent of the households do not have any of the specified assets.

The conference was also attended by N. Ashok Kumar, IAS Deputy Commissioner Imphal West and S. Dino Kumar, State Coordinator Census.