In collaboration with the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is all set to start the first Census Data Centre on its campus. The centre will provide research opportunities based on information on the country’s population size, composition, living conditions, social and cultural aspects. While census data includes important summary indicators and tables, massive data at the unit level has potential for in-depth analysis of social, economic and demographic conditions of the country’s population.

New Delhi: East Delhi is the capital’s most developed district by most standards, newly released Census data shows. However, large swathes of the city, especially in its north-east and southwest, have standards of living more comparable with a small town than with a megapolis. Varsha Joshi, director of Census Operations, National Capital Territory of Delhi, released data on houses, household amenities and assets on Monday.

Houselisting and Housing Only 78.4 per cent houses have provision for drinking water on premises, 3.3 per cent still defecate in the open. Drinking water and sanitation, the two basic civic needs, are still lacking from many parts of the city, the Houselisting and Housing Census 2011 has found. The findings of the census were released on Monday.

New Delhi may be the capital of the country but 22 per cent of its people do not have access to a latrine in their premises and are forced to defecate in the open or use public toilet.

According to 'Houselisting and Housing Census 2011' for Delhi released today, 89.5 per cent of the 33.40 lakh households in Delhi have a latrine in their premises while 3.3 per cent are forced to defecate in open.

Rural development ministry ropes in Bollywood actor Vidya Balan to promote the use of toilets. Total sanitation, the official term for ending open defecation in the country, is not remotely close to either total or sanitation, show census data.

The figures supplied by state governments on the website of the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) run by the Union Ministry for Rural Development have been exposed as false to a rather overwhelming degree. While the TSC data have 68 per cent sanitation for the country as a whole, the census found just 32.7 per cent of the country was so covered. Open defecation was the practice elsewhere.

With some States defaulting on payment of their share of funds for providing meals to children in government schools, adversely affecting the implementation of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the Centre has now asked all States to consider adopting Andhra Pradesh's model ‘Green Channel Scheme.' The A.P. model makes funds available throughout the year.

Chief Minister increases component to Rs.2,500

Perturbed by the fact that 73.3 per cent of rural households in the State are still resorting to open defecation, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has hiked the State's contribution to families willing to construct a toilet by Rs.1,500.

Thanks to rider that flow of JnNURM funds would stop, if it is not formed. The State government has begun the process of constituting the much-delayed Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC) for Bangalore.

Under the 74th amendment of the Constitution, MPC is mandatory for a city with a population of more than 10 lakh. Bangalore is home to over 85 lakh (as per census 2011).

New Delhi, April 17: If this doesn’t raise a national stink, little else will. Around 3.5 crore toilets are missing in India, if official statistics are not meant to be flushed down the drain. The Union rural development ministry claims its Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) has delivered more than 8.71 crore latrines to households across villages over the past decade. But household data from the population census shows that only around 5.16 crore households had latrines in 2011. (See chart)

Way back in the 1960s when the then Lushai Hills district of Assam was at the peak of insurgency and the security forces burnt down villages by the dozen to teach the insurgents a lesson, hundreds of Mizos were rendered homeless for long. But today, Mizoram (the state that Lushai Hills finally became) is not just an island of peace, but also a state that does not have a single homeless person.