The 6th Economic Census (2012-13) : It is also equally important

Dr David Elangbam *

A Handicraft exhibit at 9th International Imphal Trade Fair 2013 at Hapta Kangjeibung in March 2013 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

Although, a month long exercise of the 6th Economic Census (2012-13) is carried out very silently throughout Manipur since the 10th of June, 2013 under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, New Delhi in collaboration with the Directorate of Economics & Statistics, Manipur, most of us don't know that the collection of data/information is going to have a very crucial and large impact to the future economic development in the state. The data will be utilized by the central government for planning industrial development and extending benefits to the areas where it is felt necessary.

We know, reliable and timely database is the basic necessity for any sound and systematic planning. Moreover, the availability of detailed information, at macro level is the key to effective planning. In the state, the information system of the non-agricultural sector is not well built up although it is contributing the major part of gross domestic product and generating employment in this industry prone state.

Economic Census (EC) is the complete count of all establishments/units located within the geographical boundaries of the country. The first Economic Census to collect information in the non-agricultural economy was conducted in 1977 which covered only those establishments engaged in non-agricultural activities; the second Economic Census was carried out in April – May 1980 on a more comprehensive basis, along with the house listing operations of population census, 1981.

The third Economic Census (1990) was sponsored by the CSO, Government of India as a Central Sector Scheme and implemented through the State Directorate of Economics & Statistics where a complete enumeration of entrepreneurial activities other than crop production and plantation in rural and urban areas of the country was carried out.

In the fourth Economic Census (1998), information was uniformly collected through four forms namely,
(1) House list form (HL),
(2) House list abstract form (HLA),
(3) Enterprise list form (EL) and
(4) Enterprise list abstract form (ELA).

Items of information collected in the 1998 economic census were description of enterprises, classification of enterprise as to whether agriculture or non-agricultural, nature of operations, type of ownership, social group of owner, power / fuel used for the activity and number of person usually working daily in the non-agricultural enterprise with male, female, total and also hired male, hired female were recorded in the Enterprise List. Information of number of persons usually working in the agricultural enterprise with total and hired was also collected.

The fifth Economic Census was conducted both in rural & urban areas of the State. The unit of Survey in rural areas were census villages as classified by 2001 Population Census.

The 6th EC is based on the recently released provisional population data of Population Census 2010-11. It will cover every household enlisted in the Abridged House listing List (AHL) thereby updating new households which were not listed in the population census 2010-11. The Charge Officers, Supervisors and enumerators are to be appointed and the household members being asked 26 questions including the main economic activities taken up by them and its income generation.

Three schedules namely 6A, 6B and 6C are being used for recording the information/data where the first schedule consists of 26 questions including the information of the establishments which are to be asked in every household; second one is an abstract of the first schedule while third schedule is the detail information of establishment which has 8 or more workers.

The most interesting part of the 6th EC is the inclusion of handloom/handicraft activity as an establishment. A list of 46 activities is categorized under Handicraft activities. The handicraft and handloom activities has been the main establishments carried out by many people of the north eastern states for their living since long time back and is related to their rich culture. Proper census of such establishments in the area will be promising and useful information for future plan, improvement and development of such rich activities in the region.

"What is an establishment?" is the basic important question in this EC. An establishment is defined as a unit or an economic entity situated in a single location in which predominantly one kind of economic activity is carried out such that at least a part of the goods and/or services produced by the unit is sold. It can be an office providing services to the consumers/clients on fee/payment basis, a shop selling day to day consumers items or a factory producing/manufacturing goods or a house where economic activity is carried out by the members of the house by themselves or carried out by hiring people or combination of both.

When one or more type of activities are carried out in and by the same establishment by same set of workers and the book of accounts is not prepared separately, then activities are put together in one establishment. However, if different activities are done within the same premises but can be segregated by maintenance of independent accounts, then it is a case of multiple establishments.

Interestingly, agricultural establishments engaged in activities pertaining to crop production and plantations are not covered in this Census. There are also other establishments which are to be kept out of census coverage. Those are Government Offices except government schools/institutes, colleges, hospitals, hostels/flats, guest houses, government banks, all public sector undertakings including that of Ministry of Defence (other than defence equipment production or sensitive material) corporations, undertakings etc. Establishments involved in Gambling and betting activities declared illegal by the Government will also not be covered. Moreover, international organizations such as United Nations and its agencies, Foreign Embassies/Consulates etc will also not be covered.

The importance of Economic census is its scope to use the collected information for planning purposes and to assess contribution of various sectors of the country through follow up surveys based on the frame provided by EC. The EC will provide important information of activities taking place in the area and bridge up the gap between the agriculture and non-agriculture sectors of the economy especially the unorganized segments of the country's economy.

The database would enable policy makers and analysts to assess the impact of economic liberalization process on entrepreneurial activities especially in the unorganized sectors. The data collected through the economic census in the states will provide useful information for improving the data base of the concerned state economy and will help the policy makers to implement what kind of activities are required to be funded in which sector.

The 6th EC has a great role for upliftment the economic activity of the country and states as a whole. Whichever the correct information and data is given and collected, it will benefit the state in the long run. Thus, it will be more significant if the present 6th Economic Census 2012-13 is widely publicized and circulated about its importance and future impacts so that the true and correct information could be collected for future use.