Census and India:
The decennial census of India is the primary source of information about the demographic characteristics of the population of India, which is the second most populous country in the world.
The first regular census in India was taken in1881 and other took place at 10 years intervals. The last census was held in March 2001. The census is usually conducted at the end of the first quarter of the first year in each decade, the reason being that most people are usually resident in their own homes during that period. The census is carried out by the office of registrar general and census commissioner, India, Delhi, an office in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, under the 1948 Census of India Act.
1948, census of India act gives Central Government many powers like,
· To notify a date for Census,
· Power to ask for the services of any citizen for census work.
· The law makes it compulsory for every citizen to answer the census questions truthfully.
· The Act provides penalties for giving false answers or not giving answers at all to the census questionnaire.
· One of the most important provisions of law is the guarantee for the maintenance of secrecy of the information collected at the census of each individual.
· The census records are not open to inspection and also not admissible in evidence.
The census happens in two phases: first, house listing and house numbering operations; and second, the actual population enumeration phase. The census is carried out by the canvassing method. In this method, each and every household is visited and the information is collected by specially trained enumerators.
9 February, 2001, the first day of the 2001 census was celebrated as the census day.
