Introduction

The Indian Census is a credible source of statistical information on different characteristics of the citizens since 1872. This was conducted at different points of time in different parts of the country. It was in 1881 that a Census was taken for the entire country simultaneously. Since then, Census has been conducted every ten years, without a break. The Census provides a snapshot of the country's population and housing at a given point of time. The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs is the nodal authority for conducting decennial Census in the country. Census 2011 is the 15th National Census of the country since 1872 and the 7th after Independence.

Census of India 2011

C Chandramauli was the Register General and Census Commissioner of India for the 2011 Indian Census. Census data was collected in 16 languages and the training manual was prepared in 18 languages. In 2011, India and Bangladesh also conducted their first-ever joint census of areas along their border.The census was conducted in two phases. The first, the house-listing phase, began on 1 April 2010 and involved collection of data about all the buildings and census houses.Information for the National Population Register was also collected in the first phase. The second, the population enumeration phase, was conducted from 9 – 28 February 2011 all over the country. The eradication of epidemics, the availability of more effective medicines for the treatment of various types of diseases and the improvement in the standard of living were the main reasons for the high decadal growth of population in India.

New Features

This Census has incorporated some new categories for the first time for the purpose of acquiring comprehensive and better data. The new categories are as follows:
• Gender: New category 'Other' introduced in addition to Male and Female.
• Date of Birth: a new question introduced along with Age.
• Current Marital Status: Separate codes Assigned for Separated and Divorced.
• New filter Question on SC/ST Introduced- "Is this person SC/ST?"
• Disability: Household Schedule of Census 2011 attempts to collect information on eight types of disabilities as against five included in the Household Schedule of Census of India 2001. The information is being collected on disabilities namely, disability 'In Seeing', 'In Hearing', 'In Speech', 'In Movement', 'Mental retardation', 'Mental Illness', 'Any Other' and 'Multiple Disability'.
• Literacy Status for "Other" sex added in addition to existing Male and Female.
• New Codes under Status of Attendance in Educational Institutions introduced for Not Attending, viz., (i) Attended before and (ii) Never attended.
• Work: Marginal workers have been classified into two categories viz., (i) worked for 3 months or more but less than 6 months (ii) worked for less than 3 months. The definition of 'Main worker' remains the same.
• A separate code-5 has been included under Non-economic activity for renters.
• Migration: Provision to specify the present name of the Village/Town of the Birth Place as well as the Place of Last Residence introduced.
• Name of the Institutional Household is also being recorded.

Caste-based Census

Following demands from several ruling coalition leaders and many opposition parties this was decided to include caste-based informations to be collected during the Census. Information on caste was last collected during British Raj in 1931. During the early census, people often exaggerated their caste status to garner social status and it is expected that people downgrade it now in the expectation of gaining government benefits.
There is only one imtance of a caste-count in post-Independent India. It was conducted in Kerala in 1968 by the Communist government under E. M. S. Namboodiripad to assess the social and economic backwardness of various lower castes. The census was termed Socio-Economic Survey of 1968 and the results were published in the Gazetteer of Kerala, 1971.

Census Data

Provisional data from the census was released on 31 March 2011 (and was updated on 20 May 2013).

Population

Total 1,210,854,977
Males 623,724,248
Females 586,469,174

Literacy

Total 74%
Males 82.10%
Females 65.50%

Density of population

per km2 382

Sex ratio

per 1000 males 940 females

Child sex ratio (0–6 age group)

per 1000 males 919 females

UNITS in census 2011

• State/Union Territories: 35
• Districts: 640
• Sub-districts: 5,924
• Towns: 7,938
• Villages: 6.41 Lakh
The cost of Census 2011 has been estimated at Rs. 22,000 million, which works out to a per person cost of Rs. 18.19. A total of 2.7 million functionaries worked in the process with the census schedules in 16 languages-a total of 340 million schedules were printed

National Population Register (NPR)

The National Population Register (NPR) is a Register of usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. A usual resident is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next 6 months or more

The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.

National Population Policy 2000

The NPP 2000 provides a policy framework for advancing goals and prioritizing strategies during the next decade, to meet the reproductive and child health needs of the people of India, and to achieve net replacement levels (TFR) by 2010. It is based upon the need to simultaneously address issues of child survival, maternal health, and contraception, while increasing outreach and coverage of a comprehensive package of reproductive and child health services by government, industry and the voluntary non-government sector, working in partnership

Objectives

The immediate objective of the NPP 2000 is to address the unmet needs for contraception, health care infrastructure, and health personnel and to provide integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care. The medium term objective is to bring the TFR to replacement levels by 2010, through vigorous implementation of inter- sectoral operational strategies. The long-term objective is to achieve a stable population by 2070, at a level consistent with the requirements of sustainable economic growth, social development and environmental protection

National Socio-Demographic Goals

1. Address the unmet needs for basic reproductive and child health services, supplies and infrastructure .
2. Make School Education upto the age of 14 free and compulsory, and reduce drop outs at primary and secondary School levels to below 20 percent for both boys and girls.
3. Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1000 live births.
4. Reduce maternal mortality rate to below 100 per 100,000 live births
5. Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable diseases.
6. Promote delayed marriage for girls, not earlier then age 18 and preferably after 20 years of age.
7. Achieve 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained persons.
8. Achieve universal access to information/counselling and services for fertility regulation and contraception with a wide basket of choices.
9. Achieve 100 percent registration of births, deaths, marriage and pregnancy.
10. Contain the spread of Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and promote greater integration between the management of reproductive tract infection (RTI) and sexually transmitted infections (ST) and the National AIDS Control Organization.
11. Prevent and control communicable diseases.
12. Integrate Indian system of Medicine (ISM) in the provision of reproductive and child health services, and in reaching out to households.
13. Promote vigorously the small family norm to achieve replacement levels of TFR.
14. Bring about convergence in implementation of related social sector programmes so that family welfare becomes a people centred programmed.