Updated on: Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, under the dirctorate of elementary education, is conducting a census to determine the status of child population in Assam with an aim to improve childcare and education. The process has already started in 15 districts of the state and assessment and compilation of data are expected to be completed by February-end.
State programme officer S S A Apurva Thakuria said, "In child census, information of children between age group 0-18 years is collected. This is the first of its kind in Assam where child census will be carried out and the child will be given a code number under the intelligent character recognition (ICR) system."
This is a door-to-door survey and more than 6,000 enumerators have been engaged to collect data, Thakuria added.
A state-level committee has been constituted by the Assam governor and it comprises commissioners of every departments, directors, mission directors, state project director, Assam Mahila Samata Society (AMSS), representatives from Unique Identification Authority of India, NE region, police and railway representatives.
The committee will ascertain educational status of children, list number of infants for early childcare and children between 15 and 18 years of age for secondary education. The body will assess the data once in a month. Thakuria said this survey would provide database regarding child population, schooling status and intervention to be taken under Right to Education, database for out of school children, migrant children, child labourers, beggars, domestic helps and wards. The database can also be accessed by other departments, like health, family and social welfare, labour and police.
The in formation filled up in ICR format will be scanned through computer and will transfer the database automatically through a manual validation. Information like name, date of birth, disability type, educational status, economic condition of parents and early marriage will be collected.