How a National Population Census is Taken?

Census taking is a very complex and extensive task and is, therefore, usually conducted by governments. In many countries, provision for the census taking is made by law.

While such a law makes the co-operation of each citizen mandatory, it also ensures that the confidential nature of census information provided by individuals shall be preserved.

In India, census taking has been the responsibility of the Government from the very beginning. Even today, population census is a Union subject with the Ministry of Home Affairs in charge.

A senior officer of the Indian Administrative Service, with experience in the conduct of census operations, is generally appointed as Census Commissioner. There are thousands of enumerators, with a hierarchy of officers at various levels in between.

For each State and Union Territory, an officer, designated as the Director of Census Operations, is appointed. Taking into consideration the magnitude of the task, the entire administrative machinery of the State and local-self government is placed at the disposal of the Director of Census Operations.

In rural areas, primary school teachers, village “patvaris” and other village level officials, and in the urban areas teachers, clerks and other staff in local offices are generally appointed as census enumerators.

The enumerator is the basic and the most important link in census operations. He has to visit every household within the area assigned to him and collect the required information.

According to the Indian Census Act of 1948, the Central Government is empowered to notify and conduct a census in the whole country or any part of it. It authorizes census enumerators to ask the prescribed census questions and legally compel all persons to answer these questions truthfully.

The Act also guarantees that the information collected at any census from individuals shall be kept confidential, shall be used only for statistical purposes and shall not be used as evidence even in a court of law.

At this stage, it would be interesting to note some important steps and procedures that were followed in the 2001 Census as illustrative of the entire process of census taking.