CENSUS OF INDIA, 1921·. VOLUME VIII. BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. PART IV. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT BY L. J. SEDG\VICK Of the Indian Civil Se1'vice, Superintendent oj Oensus Operations. POONA; PRINTED AT THE YERAVDA PRISON PRESS. 1923. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Pages. CHAPTER I.-Superintendence 1- 3 CHAPTER H.-Enumeration 4-18 CHAPTER IlL-Tabulation 18-32 CHAPTER IV.-Notes regarding the Report 33-36 CHAPTER V.-Cost of the Census 36-37 STATEMENTS 38-55 ApPENDIX A. ApPENDIX B. SHAPEs USED IN ISOI M arried_ Unmarried _ Widowed. DMaie V DFemale l) SYMBOLS USED IN 1911 Male D Fema\e [ <: SYMBOLS USED IN 1921 Male o Female ~ SYMBOLS PROPOSED FOR 1931 Male ~ Q Female a 9 .!Vot-e. On rile s~ps on/y rhe symbols Tor seX would be printed, ;: e_ the plain C/rc/e Dr fhe Circle and dol. These would be con­ verfed TO Married? Unmarried or J.0dow­ ed by the CDpyisf> by adding the neces­ sary fat! or crossed rat! ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT. CHAPTER I--SUPFlRINTENDENCE. I was warned for the appointment about a year in advance. And this is the most satisfactory arrangement, as there is a lot of reading to be done by way of prepanttion, especially in the study of statistic!},l method; and the time available to the Provincial Superintendent during the enumeration year is extremely limited. I took charge on 1st April 1920. I had to borrow stationery, stamps and forms, and then set about hnnting for the 1911 Records. They were run to ground in a room in the City Magistrate's Office, and taken by me to my private residenoe. There was a rumour that some of the records had been eaten by white ants during the eight yeard since they had been stored. But this rumour was never verified. The fwailable lists of papers of the 1911 Census showed that all papers not noted as destroyed were ·intact. The only thing that had suffered was some old volumes of Census reports of other previnoes ; and these for tunately were of very little importance. At the same time the arrangement of putting the records in old paoking oases in a neglected room in an obscure office is dangerous and courts disaster. At the olose of the present operations the records are to be stored in Secretariat General Department, Bombay. In this connection I should like to rema.rk that the fact that nothing is done for the Provinoial Superintendent in advance is bad. In 1931---should the samo system be followed as in this and past Censuses--the following s;trrange­ ments ought to be made ifb advanoe by the General Department :- (1) An office should be secured. (2) One clerk, not necessarily of Head Clerk grade, but able to do filing and despatching, should be appointed. (3) Two peons should be appointed. (4) A permanent advance should be sanctioned. The amount in 1911 was Rs. 40 and in 1921, ~i.s. 75. (5) A certain minimum amount of stationery should be lent. (6) Copies of the Civil Service Regulations. Civil Account Oode, Census Act (current), Civil List and Desk Diary should be supplied. The fa.ilure to take this minimum necessary. aotion in advance makes for inefficien9Y. In my own ca,se a great amount of time was wa.sted in trying to obtain a. olerk. I did not find a man till bhe 21st April. The first peon was not obta.ined till 7th April, and proved to be an abandoned thief and cheat. An office was not seoured till the 21th April. Permanent advance bad to be sepa· rately applied for and was not obtained till the 17th May 19'20. I may add that the question of a private residenoe ought also to be settled in advance. The strain of searching for a residence for my family all through April and far on into May told seriously on my health and diminished efficiency. The office ultimately secured was the first floor of the nagarkhaaa at Raste's Wada, and in spite of the high rent, Rs. 75 per month, proved very unpleasant. Being in the hoart of the city and immediately over a crossroads, the noise of traffic was always severe, arid was accentuated by a sugar cane crush­ ing mill with creaking rollers; while a hot wind blew clouds of dush and dirt down the street and through the loosely fa.stended windows. Ultimately in B 436 2 April 19'21 this room was handed over to the Abstraotion offioe and a much deaner, quieter and pleasanter house secured in Bhavanipeth. A statement at the end of the volume shows the staff employed from time to time. The staff was insufficient in the enumeration stages. I leave it on record that two Head Clerks, or better a Personal Assistant and a Head Clerk are needed. Much of my time went on such routine matters as estimating district requirements of forms, and ordering their despatoh. The Head Clerk who is in charge of the office arrangements has not sufficient time to do the estimat­ ing work without detriment to the efficient managemont of the office. The more the Provincial Superintendent is relieved of these purely routine matters the more time· will be available to him for considering and arranging for the solution of statistioal and economic problems, Many of these problems are such as to require collection of details at the time of the enumeration. And if that time goes by their consideration has to be abandoned. :B~conomy in the way of starving the Provincial Superintendent of office staff is economy at the -sacrifice of efficie.pcy. I recommend the following :- At the beginning-(l) One Head Clerk for correspondence and office arrangement. (2) One clerk. (3) One typist. From 1st May-AcZd-(4) Personal Assistant to Head Clerk for framing estimates of requirements, proof-reading, &c. From 1st J uly-AcZd-(5) Accounts clerk. It is impossible to forecast how many additional hands will be required at later stages, as everything depends upon the system followed and the quantity of special and extra information ordered for collection, and the quantity of correspondence which is consequently rendered necessary over and above the ordinary routine. I merely mn,ke the above remarks in order that my successor may, if possible, avoid the deadening and wearisome burden of estimate­ framing. The method of recording correspondence was as follows. The work was broken up into compilations, each denoted by a quadriliteral lLbbreviation, viz.:- SUPT :-All questions relating to the Provincial Superintendent's Office, staff, &c. ENMN :-All questions relating to the details of the taking of the Census in the districts, providing forms, &c. ABST :-.-All questions relating to the future abstraction offices and abstraction methods. REPT :-All statistical and academic questions for discussion in the Report, regarding the form of the Report and so on. ETHN :-All questions relating to Caste, Language and Religion. TOUR :-Papers relating to tOllrs of the Provincial Superintendent and Inspection notes issued by him. ADEN :-Explains itself. 'l'his was in practice found to be au unnecessary compilation. COMP :-All matters relating to the Central Compilation Office. Each case, not each letter, was given a serial number, the numbaring being continuous throughout the course of the operations and independent of the calenjar year. A simple list of numbers and titles was kept for each compila­ tion, anq. this was in practice found sufficient-the number of cases in anyone 3 <lompilation not being high enough to neoessitate the use of the so oalled " Slip Index System" with its detaohable titles. However a few of the cases, and especially ENMN/51 (Railways) were too large and had to be sub-divided. It was also not alwa.ys easy to decide whether any partioular oorrespondence in the later stages of the operations fell under ABST or REP.r. Over and above these compilations an S. R. was maintained for applica­ tions for appointments, and another for acoount matters and during the second year S. Rs. were maintained for each of the Presses whioh took part in the printing of the R6port. The travelling work which the Provincial Superintendent has to do is very severe. I found the strain of constant night journeys trying, and the day journeys, sometimes in trains with no first or second class, are almost as bad. It is also most diffioult on brief halts to do good work when the only accommoda­ tion available is a waiting room crowded with passengers, or adak hungalow badly situated. I leave it on record that the Provincial Superintendent in 1931 ought certainly to be given a private saloon on all Railway systems. This will make directly for efficiency. '1'he most important and difficult work is along the Railways, and, with a saloon, office work and inspection work oan be oarried on at the same time. These remarks apply to the enumeration stage only. The claim for a saloon would end on the date of the Census. The following shows the skeleton of tours during the enumeration stage, and is included mainly to give point to the last para. :- 1920. May-Dharwar and back. June-Thana, Surat, Jalgaon, Dhulia and Poona. July-Ahmednagar and back. Baroda, Godhra, Ahmedabad, Hyder­ abad, Karachi, Mirpurkhas, Palanpur and Poona. Ootober-November-Sholapur, Bijapur, Hubli, Dharwar, Belgamll and Poona. Deoembor-Ahmedabad, Broach, Surat, Nasik, Bhusaval, Bombay and Poona. 1921. January-Karachi (by steamer), Hyderaba,d, N a.vabshah, Sukkur, Jacobadad, Larkaoa, Karaohi, Bombay (by steamer). 11'ebruary-Dharwar, Hubli, Beglrmm, Poona, Sarat, Ahmedabad, Godhra, Khandala, Bombay and Poona.