India has begun counting its population in the world\u2019s largest census, which will include caste enumeration for the first time in nearly a century.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s census is a $1.24bn exercise during which more than three million Indian officials will spend a year surveying about 1.4 billion Indians about their household composition, living conditions and access to basic amenities.<\/p>\n
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The last census was conducted in 2011. Another one was due in 2021, but it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving India\u2019s data on such things as its demographics, housing conditions and welfare amenities outdated.<\/p>\n
How will the gargantuan task of counting more than a billion people spread out across a vast country be carried out, and why is the latest census being watched particularly closely?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we know:<\/p>\n
How will India\u2019s census take place?<\/p>\n
According to the Press Information Bureau, India\u2019s first modern census was conducted\u00a0from 1865 to 1872 during the British colonial period, but it did not happen simultaneously across all regions of the country. It was only in 1881 that India conducted its first coordinated census.<\/p>\n
After independence in 1947, India conducted its first census in 1951.<\/p>\n
The census this year, which is the eighth since independence, will take place across the country\u2019s 28 states and eight union territories (federally run territories), which include more than 7,000 towns and 640,000 villages.<\/p>\n
For the first time, the census will be conducted digitally. Its 30 million enumerators will use digital tools like mobile applications on smartphones to collect and submit data by asking people 33 questions. Individuals will also have the option to self-enumerate through an online portal and then receive a unique digital ID, which can be submitted to the officials collecting data.<\/p>\n
The census will take place in two phases.<\/p>\n
At a news conference in India\u2019s capital, New Delhi, on Tuesday, Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan said the first phase of the census begins on Wednesday and will continue until September.<\/p>\n
During this phase, known as the House Listing and Housing Census, people will be asked \u201cHow many people live in your house?\u201d \u201cDo you own the house?\u201d and questions linked to the household\u2019s access to basic amenities like fuel, water, electricity, internet and transport.<\/p>\n
The second phase, known as the population enumeration phase, will take place in February and will focus on gathering socioeconomic details and information on education, migration and fertility. Caste enumeration will take place in this phase.<\/p>\n
The census is scheduled to conclude next year on March 31.<\/p>\n
Why is a census important?<\/p>\n
Dipa Sinha, a development economist who works on social policy, said that along with counting the number of people in the country, a census shows demographic trends.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also tells us the distribution between rural and urban areas. It gives broad demographic structure,\u201d she told Al Jazeera, adding that details of people\u2019s occupations and religions are also collected in census surveys.<\/p>\n
She said such information helps governments plan policies and citizens to claim their rights. Census data also form the basis for allocations under antipoverty programmes, she noted.<\/p>\n
Sinha added that India\u2019s latest census is drawing particular attention because the government is planning a delimitation exercise, which is basically redrawing the boundaries of electoral constituencies based on population.<\/p>\n
Politicians in southern India, where population growth has been stalling, have raised concerns that if delimitation is done purely based on population size, then northern India, where most of India\u2019s population is located, will get outsized political representation. The bulk of representation in the Indian Parliament already comes from the north, which has been a source of north-south tensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo given that the population has grown at very different places in different parts of the country, the information from this census could become highly politically relevant,\u201d Sinha said.<\/p>\n
In addition, \u201cthe government has passed a women\u2019s reservation bill last year, which says that once the new census is in place and the delimitation is done, the country would have one-third reservation for women in the parliament. So all of this makes the census something that has an impact,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
How has India\u2019s census evolved?<\/p>\n
When India\u2019s census was carried out under British rule, questions mainly focused on registering household data, such as the number, age and gender of residents, their caste and religion. How proficient a person was in the English language was also part of the data collected in the census then.<\/p>\n
Postcolonial India\u2019s census has evolved to include questions not only about individuals\u2019 identities but also to assess their socioeconomic status and living conditions.<\/p>\n
In 1971, according to the Press Information Bureau, the census also tracked internal migration by collecting data on people\u2019s last place of residence, which provided crucial insights into India\u2019s population movement patterns.<\/p>\n
Details on employment, disability and fertility status were standard questions in the 2011 census.<\/p>\n
This year, questions on couples\u2019 relationship status have also been included. Couples in a live-in relationship will be counted as married \u201cif they consider their relationship as a stable union\u201d, according to the census portal.<\/p>\n
Has the delay in carrying out the census had an impact?<\/p>\n
Government officials blamed the five-year delay in the census initially on the COVID-19 pandemic and later on administrative issues.<\/p>\n
Experts said the delay has left significant data gaps. Ashwini Deshpande, an economist at Ashoka University, argued the census matters beyond what it directly measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince it is a full enumeration of the entire population, all large-scale surveys \u2013 which, by design, capture only a subset of households \u2013 rely on the census as their sampling frame,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
She explained that a sampling frame is essentially the master list from which survey samples are drawn and, if that list is outdated, surveys risk being unrepresentative in ways that are difficult to detect or correct.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith India\u2019s last census now well over a decade old, every major survey conducted in this period is working off a frame that no longer reflects the population it is meant to represent. That is not a minor technical inconvenience. It introduces systematic errors into the data that policymakers, researchers and planners depend on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Sinha noted that the delay in conducting the census has also meant there is a lack of information on India\u2019s demographics at a time of rapid economic and political changes.<\/p>\n
Why is this year\u2019s census controversial?<\/p>\n
Besides being delayed, this year\u2019s census has been marred by controversy over the resistance by Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government to include questions on caste.<\/p>\n
Comprehensive caste data have not been collected since 1931, and India completely stopped the caste census in 1951 to prevent what the government at the time said was \u201csocial divisions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Limited information continued to be collected about Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), the caste groups located on the lowest rung of the caste hierarchy. This was recorded through the National Sample Survey. The SCs, or Dalits, are communities often excluded from the larger society under the traditional caste hierarchy while STs are tribal communities.<\/p>\n
Some states have also carried out a caste census to gather information about poverty rates, education levels and employment of marginalised communities to enable policy-making.<\/p>\n