 The population census is rich in history. The earliest documented census dates back to 499-500 BC in Persia. The oldest extant census was carried out during the Han Dynasty during 2 century AD. Most of the European countries started their census during 17th and 18th century. In India the first census started in 1860 and was complete by the year 1872. Even today, most of the census across the world follows a ten year cycle, except for countries like Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa having their census carried out every five years [Wikipedia]. It is also worth noting that some of the European countries have discontinued the census; for instance Denmark in 1950; Germany in 1987; Iceland in 1952; and the Netherlands in 1971. In these countries the census has been replaced by population registers. Australia and Canada conducted online census this year, through Internet, telephone and post mails. Year 2006 marks a turning point in the way census is carried out! Integration of GIS and census has been quite prevalent in the past decade and a half across the world, be it in Uganda, Malawi, Israel, India, Nepal, Bhutan or Japan. The 1995 census in Israel linked the census data to spatial elements as small as the buildings. In 2004, Uganda Bureau of Statistics [UBOS], adopted the GIS policy stating that it was the key to improve their services. UBOS will also be coordinating the SDI initiative for Uganda. Use of GIS for census in Japan, called the 'Census Mapping System', started during the years 1991-93. We are increasingly integrating large amount of non-spatial data with map, thanks to better storage, processing and retrieval facility along with tools to capture these data sets. We are also in a position to associate various spatial data sets available with leading mapping bodies [NMOs] with the census data, which will lead to a better understanding of an area. This approach of having leading NMOs contribute to a coordinating agency is central to the national spatial data infrastructure [SDIs], which is moving with varying pace across the Asia Pacific region. Census GIS has interested historians, social scientists, geographers andarcheologists. But, a large audience of census GIS is our policy makers and administrators. It helps them visually analyze the area from different socio-economic perspectives. But the utility of the GIS based census data, at times, becomes limited due to poor 'Public Sector' capacity at lower administrative levels. ['Public Sector' capacity building has traditionally been treated as a collateral objective, rather than as a goal in its own right. - World Bank ]. In India, we have over 25% of the population living below the poverty line. The larger part of the problem is the skewed nature of poverty spread. The top down approach where the planning is done at the central government level, impedes the use of GIS with census data, as the process seldom goes beyond the installation of GIS software. Unless the 'Public Sector' capacity at the bottom of the administrative pyramid is uplifted, the wheels of change will remain static. The geospatial technology has to connect with the people at the grass-root level. It has to 'effect' change in their living. Census GIS provides us the flexibility to identify specific region which need resource and attention. National media too will have to play a mature role in abstaining from the political abuse of census data. They can create awareness across the board; amongst the people and their leaders about the prevailing situation and perhaps provide temporal data in spatial manner which can be a good way of communicating the performance of a government vis-a-vis the social indicators. |