Release of Housing Data - 2001 Census

Mr L K Advani, Deputy Prime Minister of India, released the 2001 Census data on Houses, Household Amenities and Assets in a glittering function organized at the prestigious Convention Hall, Ashok Hotel, New Delhi on 17th April 2003. Mr K C Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, India, was the Chief Guest. Mr I D Swami, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Home Secretary, Government of India, Secretaries and senior officers from different Ministries, Country Representatives of UNFPA, UNIFEM and UNICEF, NGOs, members of press were present on the occasion (see picture). During the function, a CD on CensusInfo India 2001 developed in collaboration with UNICEF, India was also released.

After the formal launch of the dataset and the CD on CensusInfo, Mr J K Banthia, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India presented the highlights from the data before the august house. A copy of the presentation made shall be made available at the Census of India website shortly.

Ms Maria Calvis, Country Representative, UNICEF, demonstrated the working of the CD on CensusInfo India 2001, which enables extracting census data on a variety of subjects from a database forming part of the CD and preparing desired tables, graphs an charts. Most important feature of CensusInfo India is depicting the data on maps by way of analysis and using them in presentations. UNICEF, using digitized shape files of administrative boundaries and census data up to sub-district level supplied by the Census Organization has developed this CD and is prepared in the same pattern as ChildInfo and DevInfo released by them earlier.

While releasing the Housing data Mr L K Advani, Deputy Prime Minister of India, congratulated the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India for making available this important dataset for use by planners, governments, International and national agencies and research scholars. Mr Advani said that "The data on housing, household amenities and assets for Census 2001 assumes great importance because it allows us to take stock of how much we have progressed in these fronts after fifty-five years of Independence and on the other hand it tells us how much more distance we are yet to travel to meet the basic needs of our people".