New Delhi, March 31 (Inditop.com) One of the largest census exercises, to compile India’s estimated 1.2 billion people into one single database, begins Thursday with President Pratibha Patil and Vice President Hamid Ansari to be the first ones being listed.
This will be India’s 15th census since 1872. It will cost the government Rs.2,209 crore and witness engagement of 2.5 million people, union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said.
The exercise will be undertaken in two phases, Pillai said, adding that the process to create a database on demography, economic activity, literacy and education, housing and household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, language, religion and migration, would involve visiting each and every household in the country.
The census 2011 will mark a milestone as the government also intends to create the National Population Register (NPR), a comprehensive identity database that will facilitate the creation of a biometrics-based identity system in the country, allowing identity cards for all citizens.
Also, for the first time information will be collected on categories like the ownership of mobile phones, computers, internet, having treated or untreated drinking water facility, and finger prints and photographs of individuals which will help the government formulate plans and strengthen the country’s security.
The first phase, called the house listing and housing census, will be conducted between April and July this year.
The second phase, called the population enumeration, will be conducted simultaneously all over the country Feb 9-28, 2011.
Spread across 35 states and union territories, the census would cover 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils, 7,742 towns and more than 600,000 villages.
