Census favours women but statistical figures do not. Explain in brief..
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Answer:
For the success of an operation of such magnitude and importance as the Population Census, it is imperative that it should have the necessary backing of law. The Census Organisation should be armed with necessary authority to have access to households and canvass the prescribed questionnaires and to expect the people to answer truthfully. The law should also protect the interests of the people by guaranteeing the secrecy of the information collected. By now most countries have a permanent Census law requiring periodic censuses to be taken in accordance with a scheme to be notified from time to time. If in any country no such permanent law exists, suitable ad-hoc legislative approval should be obtained before launching on a census operation.
In India - a permanent legislation, viz., the Census of India Act was placed in the Statue Book in 1948. The Act empowers Central Government to notify the date for the census and to appoint a Census Commissioner and Superintendents of Census Operations in States. The Act enjoins upon every citizen to assist in the taking of census. The Act lays down that services of any citizen can be requisitioned for census work and takes obligatory on every person occupying a house, enclosure etc. to allow access to census officers, and to allow them to paint on or affix to the place such letters, marks or numbers as may be necessary for census purposes.
The law makes it obligatory on the part of every citizen to answer the census question truthfully. The Act provides penalties for giving false answer or not giving answers at all to the census questionnaire. At the same time, it calls upon the census officers to discharge their duties faithfully and warns them against putting any question to a person which is not covered by the questionnaire and they are required to record the answers as given by the person enumerated. One of the most important provisions of law is the guarantee it provides for the maintenance of secrecy of the information collected at the census of each individual. The Act requires strict secrecy to be maintained about the individual's record which should not be used for any purpose against the individual except for an offence in connection with the census itself. The census records are not open to inspection and also not admissible in evidence. The answers ascertained at the census can be used only for statistical purposes in which the individual data get submerged.
The success of census, however, depends not so much on the penal provisions in the Act but on the willing co-operation of all concerned. It is the responsibility of every census officer to create such atmosphere in which people may not give false replies to questions because of unnecessary for unfounded fears.
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