Dhaka: The 6th population and housing census of Bangladesh started on Wednesday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally launching the weeklong exercise from her official residence Ganabhaban in Dhaka.
The census is being held after a delay of more than one year from the scheduled time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It will conclude on 21 June. It is the first time Bangladesh is conducting the census digitally.
The data for the census is being collected digitally across Bangladesh with the help of more than 3.65 lakh enumerators, over 63 thousand supervisors, 3779 IT supervisors and 3779 zonal officers. The census process will utilise the web-based Integrated Census Management System (ICMS) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Data from all the households in the country will be collected through the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method using digital Tabs. The government has procured close to 4 lakh tabs for this purpose.
The census will collect demographic and socio-economic data like number of households, ownership of homes, income, source of drinking water, toilet facilities, religion, marital status, age, gender among other kinds of data. Besides, basic data from the non-resident Bangladeshis would also be collected in the census. Some 2,000 hot spots both in the urban and rural areas have already been identified to collect the data from the homeless people.
Government has made arrangements to keep the personal data of the people safe as the data on the server will be encrypted and allowed to be accessed only by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The country’s first Population and Housing Census was held in 1974 followed by the 2nd census in 1981, the 3rd one in 1991, the 4th census in 2001 while the 5th one was conducted in 2011.