GOVERNMENT OF ASSAM

INTRODUCTION

The census of Assam Government Employees was initially taken up by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Assam in the year 1953 with 31st March as the reference date. Since then, the census had been carried out annually till the year 1973. But, due to various gaps in the flow of data from a large number of Government offices, it is difficult to maintain the annual periodicity of the census and due to the above mentioned constraints and the next census for Assam Government Employees was made biennial after 1973 and then triennial after 1979. The next census had been conducted after a gap of five years from the census of 1989. The present census had been conducted after a gap of five years from the last census of 1999. The data presented in this report relate to the census of all Employees of Assam Government and also of Employees in the public sector undertakings and other Establishments. Through this census, an attempt has been made to collect and interpret data on the position of the total strength of the State Government Employees as well as the employees in the public sector undertakings and other Establishments according to status, scale of pay, basic pay, total emoluments, social groups, sex, place of birth, religion etc.

COVERAGE
The census covered all the regular employees working under the State Government including regular work-charged employees, the employees on contract basis and the employees of the provincialised schools. Regular Employees include all persons appointed against regular sanctioned posts carrying a scale of pay or on a fixed pay on regular basis and paid out of consolidated fund. Regular work-charged employees and employees on contract basis subject to discharge on not less than one month’s notice also came under the purview of the census. The total number of employees in position as on the particular date i.e. on 31st March’2004 and not the total number of posts existing on this date was covered by the census. The staff paid out of contingencies, work-charged employees other than regular ones and those employees engaged on daily wage basis were excluded. The census also covered employees of public sector undertaking and other establishments and data relating to this type of employees have been presented separately in part-B of the report. The employees who were either on leave or under suspension on the reference date i.e. on 31st March’2004 were also counted.

METHOD OF COLLECTION OF DATA

The census returns were collected mainly through correspondences with the concerned offices and institutions. Sufficient copies of the prescribed printed proforma along with instructions for filling up the proforma were supplied to all the heads of offices/ institutions. Besides, the technical staff of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Assam, rendered necessary help and assistance in filling up the proforma by the various offices/ institutions whenever required. Such assistance was provided to the Secretariat and the offices of the Heads of Departments by the Headquarter staff of this Directorate, while the staff of the Deputy Director/ Sub-Divisional Statistical officer in different Districts/ Sub-Divisions of this Directorate provided necessary assistance to all other offices / institutions within their respective jurisdictions as and when required.
RESPONSE
Although all the possible efforts had been made to achieve complete coverage; there still remains some gap in the coverage because of non-submission of required data by many offices. Several heads of departments and some other district and Sub-Divisional officers and educational institutions did not furnish their census returns in spite of repeated reminders issued and personal contact by the staff of this Directorate. The number of employees recorded in this report was the actual position of employees received as per returns submitted by the Government offices and other establishments as on reference date. The returns for 5996 nos. of establishments were served for which 5581 nos. of establishments submitted their returns only.
SOME FINDINGS    
The census revealed that the total number of  Assam  Government employees as on 31st March,2004 were 3,24,178 as against 3,26,071 as on 31st March,1999 accounting for a decrease of 0.58 percent in 2004 over 1999. Of these employees 1,55,130 were from reported educational institutions, which constituted 47.85 percent of the total employees. The total number of Class I and Class II employees were 17,436, which constituted 5.38 percent of the total employees for the reporting offices. The numbers of female employees were 59,254, which constituted 18.28 percent of the total employees of reporting offices in the State. It is interesting to note that the percentage of female employees increased by over 4.84 percent as compared to that of the last census which was 56516 . The total number of employees belonging to Scheduled caste, Scheduled Tribes (Hills), Scheduled Tribes (Plains) and other

Backward Classes were 21519, 6823, 33071 and 94611 which constituted 6.64%, 2.11%, 10.20% and 29.19%  of the total employees of reporting offices respectively showing decrease in the percentage shown over 1999 census except for Scheduled Tribes (Plains) where there is a marginal increase in percentage.

Distribution of employees according to age shows that as per the report received 1520 employees were to attain 58 years of age as on 31st March, 2004. It is estimated that about 8000 employees on average in each year during 2009 to 2012 will attain the age of 60 years. So far female employees are concerned high concentration was noticed in the age group 36-37 years. Number of female employees aged 19 years and less than 24 years were found to be nil in case of Class I and Class II category.

Regarding other establishments i.e. establishment other than State Government Offices and educational institutions including provincialised Schools, the number of employees of the reporting establishment was 28,354 out of which only 3177 (11.2 %) were females. The percentage share of employees in respect of the Scheduled caste, Scheduled Tribes (Hills), Scheduled Tribes (Plains) ,Other Backward Classes and Others were 7.65%, 1.26%, 6.88 % , 31.78 % and 52.43 %  respectively.