Home ›› 25 May 2022 ›› Front
The sixth Population and Housing Census 2022 will be held across the country digitally from June 15 to 21 to collect complete data on the overall population, its composition, workforce, density, housing and other socio-economic indicators vital for formulating proper economic and other policies.
The upcoming census will be different from the previous ones as it will include, for the first time, the country’s Bangladeshi expatriates as well as foreigners staying in Bangladesh.
Besides, unique household identities will be provided for the first time.
Under this census, using GIS (Geographic Information System) based digital map data of all households of the country will be collected simultaneously through Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method with the help of mobile tabs.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has taken the project titled ‘Population and Housing Census 2022’ which will be completed by June 2024.
Around 3.70 lakh enumerators and 65,000 supervisors will conduct census in the field level. However, around 10,000 zonal and IT officials will also work in the process.
Enumerators are basically unemployed people and students of the country. They were appointed by the committee headed by the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) at every upazila, BBS official said. Each enumerator will get Tk7, 875 as an honorarium for working seven days during the census.
BBS will start providing training to master trainers of the project from May 25-28 at the BBS office. The training programme will be inaugurated by the Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on May 25 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
BBS officials said enumerators and supervisors will get training in three phases – on June 4-7 and June 9-12 while zonal and IT officials of the census will get training from May 30 to June 2.
The BBS last published a population census report in 2011 that estimated Bangladesh’s population at 14.98 crore.
Currently the total population is 16.8 crore, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2021.
Each household and its members will be included in the enumeration process on a certain reference date of the census, according to the proposal.
“We have decided to conduct population census across the country from June 15 to 21 after it was delayed due to second wave of Covid-19 and procurement of 3,95,000 tabs,” Project Director Dilder Hossain told The Business Post.
He also said BBS will start mass campaign centering the population and housing census from June 5.
“Already we have published advertisement through print media. Then we will conduct campaign through television, radio, mobile message to give information to every person. We have procured tabs and other necessary equipment.”
The national identity (NID) card information will be included in the census. Since Bangladesh’s first population census in 1974, the BBS has all along carried out this flagship census once in each decade – the second one was done in 1981 followed by three more in 1991, 2001, and 2011.
Officials of BBS said after completing census across the country, BBS can publish summery report of the census within three months.
The BBS will publish full and complete report on the population census within six months, they also said.
Director General of BBS, Mohammad Tajul Islam said, “We have completed all the preparatory works for conducting the sixth population and housing census across the country. We have taken all sorts of initiatives for holding the census fairly.”
He urged all to cooperate with the enumerators to hold the census free and fairly.
State Minister for Planning Prof Shamsul Alam said, “We have planned to conduct population and housing census every five years. We hope that we will do it successfully,” he said.
The project is being implemented at a cost of Tk1575.68 crore which will come from the government exchequer. A total of Tk1299.21 crore has been allocated for 2021-22 fiscal year, according to the project proposal.
A total of Tk 553 crore has been allocated for the procurement of tabs and ACs to implement the project. BBS will procure digital devices and associated software to equip census manpower in the whole country, officials also said.
After twice rejecting proposals to buy 3.95 lakh tablet computers for the census purpose, the cabinet committee on purchase approved the proposal to buy tablets for about Tk 448 crore from Walton Digi-Tech Industries Ltd.
