Next population census in 2011
by Kamalanath LIYANAGE
The Director, Department of Census and Statistics, H. R. Gunasekera
announced, the next census on the Sri Lankan population will be held in
2011. This will be the first post-war census to take place in three
decades.
Gunasekera said, the procedure of carrying out the census is already
completed now and the department is scheduled to cover all the Grama
Niladhari (GN) divisions of the country. For simplifying the counting
task, they divided a GN division into 150 building units (census
blocks).
Hence during the process the department will cover 80,000 distinct
census blocks.
He said that they will employ all the department staff with nearly
80,000 enumerators and district administrative officers, GAs and AGAs
for collecting, counting and the administration process.
It is planned to offer special training programs to the respective
department and non- department staff members at selected training
centers.
Gunasekera said, the questionnaire for the next census slightly
differs from the previous years censuses and the department had already
taken pre-defined steps to overcome the shortcomings of the process.
During the next census, the department will use modern technical
equipment to upgrade the quality and efficiency of the process.
Major budgetary requirements for the census will be provided by the
government and the donor agencies may amalgamate with the government for
staff training and awareness programs. International organisations such
as the UN, convey technical support for the process. Gunasekera said,
census information is the one of the most important and considerable
facts are collected when the development programs take place.
Hence, the department needs the public support to gain their accurate
and updated information.
Furthermore he said, the general public will not fear to disclose
their true details to the enumerators, because the department does not
reveal the provided facts to any other third party even if the court
ordered it to do so.
Inability to control movements of the people adversely effects the
census process. So, the director census invites the public to ensure
that each person is counted once and only once at the census.
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