1. Role of Metadata in Census Data Dissemination
2011
United Nation Regional Seminar on
Census Data Dissemination and Spatial Analysis
Manish Bharadwaj Indian Administrative Service Director of Census Operation, Gujarat
Office of the Registrar General India

2. What is Metadata ? Metadata loosely means data about data.
A metadata record consists of a set of attributes, or elements, necessary to describe the resource in question
Metadata is a key element of census dissemination to ensure that the underlying concepts are well understood and that the results are well interpreted.

3. Types of Metadata Descriptive Administrative & Rights Management
Purpose: Resource discovery and identification
Ex.: Title, abstract, author, URL, keywords, etc.
Administrative & Rights Management
Purpose: Help manage a resource
Ex.: Who created and when, who can access, content format, rights information, etc.
Structural metadata
Purpose: Document structure
Ex.: Chapter, section, paragraph

4. All tabulations should include the following metadata:
Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses – UN : 2008
All tabulations should include the following metadata:
Full references to where the information can be obtained
Census questions;
reasons why they are asked;
Conceptual definitions (census dictionary)
geographic hierarchies used
changes since the previous census with regard to content
operational methods or geographic boundaries; and
quality indicators such as coverage rates and item non-response.

5. Status – Indian Census
Whereas basic metadata is provided with every table released, a complete regime is still not in place.
Few of the products based on 2001 Census data were released with complete metadata but the same practice was not followed for other products.
The Census Organisation proposes to take steps to compile metadata collection for future data releases as per the standards prescribed by the UNSD.

6. Thank you