[Questions 16 and 17 were asked for household members age 0-17.]

16. Is [the respondent]'s biological mother alive?

Empirical research findings in developing countries show that the number of orphans is increasing chillingly through time. This results a greater social and economic pandemonium in the society. Particularly an escalating number of children and youth become victims of the death of either one of their parents because of HIV/AIDS. To investigate the volume of the impact two successive questions are incorporated in the census questionnaire. These questions are referring to children and youth aged 0 to 17 years.

Question 16:- Is [the respondent]'s biological mother alive?

This question is regarding the survivorship status of the biological mother of children aged 0-17 years. All members of the household aged 0-17 years are eligible to this question. Based on the response to be obtained, code 1 will be given and marked to those children whose biological mothers are alive at the time of enumeration. For those children whose biological mothers are reported to have died, code 2 will be assigned. Enumerators should bear in mind that the question refers to only the biological mothers and it does not consider survivorship status of guardians or adopting mothers.