With political parties across the spectrum asking the government to conduct a socio-economic survey of different communities, the government is considering clubbing the below poverty line (BPL) survey with the caste census. “A recent meeting between the Rural Development Ministry and the Registrar General of India (RGI) explored the possibility of carrying out the BPL survey along with the caste census as an alternative to the community wise socio-economic survey,” a...

NGOs fear several thousands left out ‘A mockery as enumerators insensitive' The census of the homeless in Delhi was completed on Tuesday with officials saying that they put in their best effort to count as many persons as possible, though some NGOs feared that several thousands were left out. Director of Census Operations (Delhi) Varsha Joshi said she along with other top officials had personally supervised the effort which began on the night...

The world's second largest national headcount operation, the Census of India, is significant for several reasons. The largest peace-time administrative activity of the Indian state is also the third since economic liberalisation was initiated. Three decades is enough time for a nation to assess the economic impact and implications of a change in macroeconomic policies, and hence Census 2011 should provide statistical insights into what the move away from state-led...

The second phase of Census 2011 began today with enumerators seeking information about the first citizen of the country, President Pratibha Patil. The decadal exercise, which will cover the entire country, began by collecting information on a "number of characteristics about the President's personal household" by enumerator Rita, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said. The exercise took place in the presence of Home Minister P Chidambaram, Minister of state for Home Affairs Gurudas...

Work on India's sixth economic census will begin in 2012 as the government wants to give preference to enumeration of those living below the poverty line and a caste census. The economic census, which provides basic data on the number of enterprises and people employed in them, was originally planned to begin this month. "We are now looking to start fieldwork on economic census by February 2012," a senior official with...