With the star cast of SAB TV's popular series Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma as brand ambassadors, the Census operations will be launched in Gujarat on February 9.

In the presence of Mr Asit Modi, director, and other lead actors of the series, the State Director of Census Operations, Mr Manish Bhardwaj, said here today that the serial makers were even toying with the idea of dedicating an episode to the national headcount campaign, which is scheduled to be completed with the counting of homeless people on February 28.

Besides, the authorities have taken a number of steps to create awareness among the people. For the first time, for instance, the packets of prasadam distributed at famous temples like Somnath, Dwarka and Ambaji will have Census-related information to encourage the pilgrims to be part of it.

The first phase of Census 2011, involving house-listing, housing census and collection of data on National Population Register (NPR), was carried out from April 21 to June 4, 2010. During the second phase beginning next week, about 27 lakh enumerators will fan out across India. They include 1.2 lakh teachers and supervisors in Gujarat, and the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The reference point of Census 2011 will be the midnight of March 1, 2011 – the population as on this date and hour will be the preliminary official count nationally. A revision round will be carried out from March 1 to 5 and preliminary statistics will be available on March 25. However, the full and final figures will be released only next year.

Census 2011 will use advanced ICR technology so as to ensure faster completion of work and bringing down to 1 to 2 years the time taken to complete the process from 4 to 5 years in 2001.

Mr Bhardwaj said that for population enumeration, 29 questions have been devised on demographic, marital status, religion, language, disability, literacy, economic activities, migration and fertility parameters. Among the new features added this time are inclusion of the date of birth, and a new category in gender parameter (“Others”, apart from male and female).

This year's Census will be the 15th after 1881 when the British carried out a national-level Census for the first time. Unlike in the US, where the per head count costs $10, the Indian Census will be the cheapest in the world, at $0.5 per head, he added.

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