Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA.
Census. The charge was ordinarily a township and was controlled by the Charge
Superintendent, the highest grade of Census Officer formally appointed under the
Act (X of 1900), who was as a rule either a Township Officer or an Inspector
of Land Records. Each charge consisted of a number of circles, for each of which
a Supervisor was responsible. Clerks, revenue surveyors, thugyis and the
more intelligent of the rural officials were usually selected for the control of circles.
The size of circles varied considerably, but their area was never greater than what
an active Supervisor could cover easily, with stoppages for inspection, within a
week or ten days. Each circle was composed of so many blocks (from 10 to 15
ordinarily) in charge of an Enumerator, with whom the actual duty of recording
the population in the schedules rested. The Enumerator was ordinarily a thugyi,
a village headman, a ten-house gaung, or some other rural official. Where suitable
officials were not available for the work non-officials were selected. With a few
rare exceptions, there were never more than 50 houses in a block ;
there was
practically no minimum. Each block was enumerated in a separate enumeration
book. For the purposes of the Census a house was defined as a building to
which a separate number had been affixed for Census purposes. This left a wide
discretion to local Census Officers. A village was in the Code a village as
defined in the Village Act and Regulation. Certain difficulties which arose in
connection with the use of this term are described in the Administrative Volume.
At the next Census I would advise that the artificial village area be ignored and
the hamlet taken as the initial unit. A Census town was either a municipality, a
cantonment, a town as denned in the Towns Act or Regulation, or any other collection
of houses with 5,000 or more permanent inhabitants that it was decided
to look upon as possessing real urban characteristics. A total of fifty such urban
areas were treated as towns for the purposes of the Census. There were two
cities (i.e., towns of not less than 100,000 inhabitants)—Rangoon and Mandalay.
A special register for towns was prescribed in Chapter III of the Code. By the
end of the rains the Village and Town registers had been practically completed
and abstracts had been sent me, with maps of the areas concerned.
11. Towards the end of August orders were issued, in the shape of an
addendum to Chapter II of the Census Code, directhouse-iistSc.
house - numberin °' ing the preparation of circle lists and circle maps for
the use of Supervisors at the Census. The circle list
was a synopsis of the Census arrangements made for the circle, serving for the
smaller area much the same purpose as the General Village Register served for
the district. The map supplemented the knowledge conveyed to the Supervisor by
the circle list. Lists and maps were prepared in the district office and distributed
thence to Supervisors. Their preparation was a long and troublesome task, but
they had for the most part been issued to Supervisors soon after the business of
house-numbering had been taken in hand. . This latter stage of the operations was
reached about October or November and occupied Supervisors and Enumerators for
the better part of the rest of the year. It was dealt with in Chapter VII of the
Code of Census Procedure. In the matter of house-numbering, Enumerators were
guided by Supervisors and Supervisors by instructions contained in Chapter I of a
small pamphlet issued in English and Burmese towards the close of September,
known as the " Charge Superintendents' and Supervisors' Manual." This was the
Supervisor's vade mecum. It was made as simple and at the same time as exhaustive
as possible. The first chapter dealt with the circle list, house-numbering,
the house list, and the distribution of enumeration books as looked at from the Supervisor's
point of view and carried matters up to the date for the commencement of
the preliminary enumeration. The house list was prepared by the Enumerator after
house-numbering was finished. It was virtually a rough index to his enumeration
book and, when completed, gave a list of all the households for which he was responsible.
It was eventually copied by him into his enumeration book and called the
block list. The preparation of the house list was dealt with in a second addendum
to Chapter II of the Code of Census Procedure. Chapters IV and V of the Code
contained a few points of importance relating to the translation and supply of forms.
The schedules, with the covers of the enumeration books, were printed in Burmese
and Shan. All other forms were, when this was necessary, translated into Burmese.