Census of India 2001
Mobilising Support for India’s Census Constraints and Challenges
J K Banthia
Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India
Pretoria, South Africa
November 2001
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Some Basic Facts on India :
1. India comprises of 30 states and five
union territories with a provisional
population of 1,027,015,247 as on 0:00
hours of 1st March 2001
2. Largest state in terms of population is
Uttar Pradesh with population at 2001
Census is 166 million and the smallest
is the union territory of Lakshadweep
with only 0.06 million population.
3. Rajasthan has the largest area –
342,239 sq km; Lakshadweep has the
smallest area – 32 sq km
Contd.
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Some Basic Facts on India :
4. Total number of districts - 593. The
largest district is Medinipur of West
Bengal with a population of 9.6 million
and the smallest district is Yenam in
Pondicherry with a population of
31,362 only.
5. Total number of towns – 5,161.
Population of the largest town Greater Mumbai and the smallest town
has a population 338 in Gujarat.
6. Total number of villages in the country
is over 642,000
Contd.
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Some Basic Facts on India :
7. Vast social and cultural diversity can be
gauged by the fact that over 1500
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
exist. There are 18 scheduled languages.
Six major religions and several other
persuasions and faiths co-exist.
8. India has a democratic setup with a free
vibrant press.
9. A three-tier system of government - A
Union Government for the country at the
centre, the provincial governments in the
states and the local governments at the
village and town level
Contd.
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Some Basic Facts on India :
10. Census is a Union subject and is entirely
funded by the Central Government. State
and local governments carry out the
census operations under the overall
supervision of the Central government and
their main role is in providing the
manpower.
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Census in India
1. Census is carried out under the Census
of India Act 1948. There are several
provisions in the Constitution which
make it mandatory for the Government
to undertake census.
2. India has a long tradition of carrying
out a decadal population census since
1872 without any interruption. Census
of India 2001 is the 14th in the series
and 6th since the Independence.
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Census in India
3. Census is carried out in two phases –
Houselisting Operations (April to June
2000) and Population Enumeration (9th
to 28th February 2001 with a revisional
round between 1st to 5th March).
4. For each round approximately 2 million
paid Enumerators and Supervisors
(mostly Teachers) were deployed.
5. Census is carried out by the canvassing
method – the Enumerator visits each
household and collects information at
the doorsteps.
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Census in India
6. Every person within the boundaries of
the country is enumerated irrespective
of sex, caste, religion, nationality, age.
This includes the houseless and
pavement dwellers also.
7. Census information is confidential by
law and is used only for statistical
purposes in aggregated form at predesignated administrative levels.
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Census in India
8. It is mandatory for every household to
provide information in respect of each
member as truthfully as possible to the
designated questions put by the Census
Enumerator.
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Constraints and Challenges
1. Financial
2. Legal
3. Socio – political
4. Technical
5. Administrative
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Financial :

The quantum of honorarium for the Enumerators
(approximately USD 50 per Enumerator)

Size of the enumerating agency – particularly the
supervisory staff

Appointment of Master Trainers for intensive and
quality training of Enumerators

Deployment of Census Advisors during training of
Enumerators for engendering the census, better
age reporting and netting of women’s work,
particularly unpaid work (Assistance came from
UNFPA, UNIFEM & UNICEF)

Use of quality paper and quality printing for
Census Schedules due to change in data
processing technology (adoption of scanning and
ICR technology).
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Financial :

Additional cost on account of Practice
Sheet for writing numerals by the
Enumerators

Additional cost on account of
standardizing the size of training
class and on preparation of multimedia training capsules in several
languages

Additional cost on account of
equipment, such as LCD Projectors,
Laptop computers etc.
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Financial :

Approximately half of the projected additional
requirement of funds was on account of the
manual data processing as per the initial plans.

Additional cost on account of Publicity
particularly Radio and Television which are no
longer in government control

Size of the Budget requirement therefore
increased tremendously over the earlier
censuses. Initial projected and approved
budget was about US Dollar 260 million (Direct
per capita cost on account of census taking and
data processing was estimated at USD 25
cents).
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Legal:

Several writ petitions filed in High Court for
inclusion of particular questions as a part of
Census (e.g., caste, religion..)

For permanent absorption as full time
employees in government of part time census
employees and even enumerators deployed in
the previous censuses.

Challenging the requisitioning of services of
certain employees for census work
particularly in metropolitan cities (by Bank
employees, teachers etc.).
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Socio – political :

Inclusion of question on disability by several
NGOs

Providing of extra numeric code for certain
religious groups and recording of the existence
of their religious communities

Proper recording of certain tribal groups

Providing of separate identity for eunuchs and
treating prostitutes/sex workers as
economically active population

Changing the period of population enumeration
on account of seasonal migration

Enumeration of tenants – a fear among certain
landlords of levying of extra House Tax by the
town authorities
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Socio – political :

Suspicion among people that certain questions
enquiring regarding assets owned by the
household will be passed on to the Income tax
Department

Overcoming the abnormal ground realities in
Jammu & Kashmir in wake of the militants call
to boycott census and in Tripura due to social
unrest.
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Technical:

Canvassing of only one Census schedule – the
Household Schedule

Redesigning of the Houselist and the Household
Schedule taking cognizance of the scanning and
ICR technology adopted in the Census for the
first time.

Provision of practice sheet for Enumerators for
writing numeric responses to census questions
in a consistent manner across the country to
facilitate the process of scanning and
recognition of filled-in census schedules

Direct participation and involvement of the
population invoked through provision of putting
the signatures of the respondent
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Technical:

Enhancing the scope of Census data at the
Houselisting stage by including several new
items of information on quality of life. Similarly
some new questions were added at the
Population Enumeration stage also.

Slum enumeration blocks carved out in towns to
provide data on housing and demographic data
on slum dwellers at no extra cost.

Special efforts made to sensitize the
Enumerators and the public to minimize gender
biases creeping in unconsciously at the time of
canvassing of schedule. This was achieved by
better designing of the Questions, restructuring
the Instruction Manual and training sessions,
engagement of Census Advisors and special
publicity measures highlighting women’s work.
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Technical:

Exploring new technology for data processing
with a view to speed up the census results and
also bring down the huge cost on account of
manual tabulation (The revised estimated cost
on account of data processing is likely to be in
10 –12 million USD only).

Dissemination of Census results using multiple
media, like, printed volumes, floppy diskettes,
CD ROM, Internet

By using GIS creating digital database of the
administrative boundaries of the country from
village level upwards to facilitate thematic maps
based on census data
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Administrative :
• Setting the house in order – appointment of
Census Commissioner, India and Directors of
Census Operations of 35 states.
• Freezing of administrative boundaries with
effect from 1. 1. 2000 – ban on creation of new
districts, towns, villages etc. (However in
November 2000 three new states were created
by Government of India !! Unprecedented in
the history of Indian Census)
• Finalizing/rescheduling the period of census
taking, particularly in Jammu & Kashmir and
earthquake affected areas of Gujarat.
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Administrative :
• Overcoming various administrative problems,
such as strike of Government employees just
prior to the commencement of census
operations in Bihar, Rajasthan, Jammu &
Kashmir
• Timely printing of about 350 million Census
Schedules and 5 million Instruction Manual for
Enumerators in 16 and 18 languages
respectively – ensuring proper and correct
translation
• Logistic support for transporting and
distributing the Census material across the
length and breadth of the country – by ship,
air, rail, road and even on foot
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Administrative :
• Storing and record keeping of 228 million
schedules - Collection of filled-in schedules in
plastic folders for protection against rain, dust
and destruction. Taking care to retrieve them
from all the two million Enumeration Blocks,
maintaining proper inventory and ensuring
proper storage before scanning.
• Enhancing public awareness on Census and
with a view for full coverage of the population,
even in the remotest areas and improving the
quality of information to be collected
(overcoming the massive pulse – polio
campaign that preceded Census. Similarly the
spot light on news coverage of the tragic
earthquake of 26th January 2001 had to be
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taken into account)
Administrative :
• An appropriate mix of radio (for people in
remote and inaccessible areas), television (for
largely for the urban and semi-urban people),
newspapers and other print media (for various
linguistic groups and the literate population)
• Census Help Centres opened across the
country to provide instant assistance to
Enumerators and also the public to improve
the coverage and content.
• Opening of toll free Census Telephone Help
Line for public to register their grievance.
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Administrative :
• Special approaches for publicity involved use of
stickers, organizing cycle rallies, Census Quiz
Contest on Internet, street plays, song and
musical numbers, essay competition etc.
• Celebration of 9th February – the first day of
census taking – as the Census Day. Mass
campaign for affixing the sticker bearing the
census logo
• Nation wide free publicity on account of the
enumeration coverage of the President, Vice
President, Prime Minister and other important
dignitaries (This free publicity was worth millions
of Dollars).
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Administrative :
• Messages urging people to participate in census
wholeheartedly and provide correct information
(the President, Prime Minister, Governors and
Chief Ministers of states, noble laureate Prof
Amartya Sen, popular sports and film
personalities and important social activists).
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