Census of India
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Modern-day census started in 1881
When were the earliest censuses conducted in India?.
The third century BC treatise of Kautilya, ‘‘Arthashastra’’, which lays down the principles of governance, prescribed the collection of population statistics for taxation purposes. It also has methods of collecting population, agricultural and economic statistics. Extensive records of land, production, population, famines, etc, were also maintained during the Mughal period. Ain-i-Akbari also contains comprehensive data about population, industry, wealth, and so on.
However, with the decline of this great empire and the political chaos in its wake, this tradition of data collection went into disuse. The first modern census was conducted between 1865 and 1872 in different parts of the country in a non-synchronous fashion. The efforts culminated in 1872 and hence the year is dubbed as the year of the first population census in India. Synchronous censuses started from 1881 and since then there has been no interruption in the exercise conducted once every 10 years.
Why is the census such an important exercise?
The census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1945. It is the most credible source of information about demography, literacy, standards of living, urbanization, languages spoken, fertility, mortality and various other economic and socio-cultural aspects of the country, which underscores its importance for any government. It is also the only source of primary data at village, town and ward level. The delimitation or reservation of constituencies is also done on the basis of census data.
A census also provides the parameters for reviewing the country’s progress and helps the government in assessing the impact of ongoing schemes. The information it provides is crucial for planning and formulation of polices. Census data is also widely used by nongovernment agencies, scholars, business people and journalists. The census process involves collecting data in census form by visiting every house. The data processing is done by Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) software, which scans the forms and automatically extracts the data.
What is the debate over the caste census?
In all the censuses conducted from 1941, census enumerators collect caste data only for castes and tribes listed in the schedules to Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution — hence, the only castes pertaining to which data is compiled are the SCs and STs. As a result, there is no authentic data for other castes, including the OBC category. Estimates for these are made either by extrapolation of the 1931 figures or by sampling surveys, both of which are not reliable for obvious reasons.
There is, thus, a strong demand from many that data should be collected on other castes as well, particularly now when government policy provides for reservations for OBCs. Those against a caste census argue that it will increase casteism and widen the caste divide (ignoring the fact that 80 years of not having caste censuses has not made the institution disappear). They also point out that unlike brahmins, who have an all-India presence, most other castes are localised and hence it would be difficult to aggregate the other castes to get a true picture of the OBC population.
Census 2011: What is new?
In the 15th census, officials will also record access to new age technologies like mobile phones, computers and internet connections. Also, for the first time, a comprehensive database of all the usual residents of the country will be made. The database will be known as the National Population Register (NPR) and is estimated to cost over Rs 3,500 crore. The NPR will include information like name, sex, education and occupation of every usual resident of the country.
The database will also contain photographs and finger biometry of persons above the age of 15 years. After the finalization of the database, every individual will be assigned a Unique Identification Number (UID) and an identity card containing basic details will be issued. Although both processes are carried out together, the NPR is different from the census because unlike the census, which requires a particular manpower for a limited period of time the NPR is a continuous process and the database will be regularly upgraded.
1871: the first British census
SEPTEMBER 22 | 1871 COUNTING PEOPLE, LAYING TRACKS
Early Firsts | The train and the census were born out of an urgency to map and network this country’s diverse regions & people Locals feared ‘Kumpani’ taxes, arrests
The British carried out their first nation-wide survey of India in 1871, an exercise they began preparing for well in advance in 1869, as the Times of India reported on July 2 that year. [India’s own tradition of census dates back to several centuries before.]
The 1869 report says: “As the want of anything like even an approximate knowledge of the population was much felt, the government of India submitted a recommendation to Her Majesty’s government that arrangements should be made for undertaking a general census of the population of India in 1871.”
The secretary of state, reported TOI, appreciated the urgent need for such an exercise. “The government of India in a letter dated August 20, 1867, requested...that the...proposed census of 1871 might be taken into consideration and that the government of India might be furnished by January 1, 1870, with reports as to the best mode of effecting it.” The 1871 census would take place with the rest of the British Empire.
Another report mentioned how eight local governments had been instructed to “familiarize the minds of people with the idea of a census”. The statistical committee was asked to prepare “uniform tables” for the purpose. Despite the elaborate preparations and professed need to sensitize people to the exercise, enumerators ran into myriad problems, amplified in TOI’s columns. “How do you classify the street-side ear-wax cleaner?” A subsequent census threw up another gem. It ended up classifying “mendicants and ascetics with prostitutes since both were termed non-productive workers.”
TOI’s columns are replete with reports and letters-to-editors detailing how local officials and policemen misused the census and made it an exploitative tool. William Drew, a missionary wrote a letter to the editor of Calcutta Examiner, that was reproduced in TOI on September 22, 1871.
Drew wrote, “As the cost will be met from the exchequer, it is fair that all abuses connected should be published to the world.” He detailed his visit to a village Sulkea (see box) where he came across a policeman making a fast buck by misleading villagers. Telling them census details would be used to levy taxes, he offered to register incorrect details of a family for a price. “This way, partly by intimidation and partly by an unquestioned assumption of authority and superior knowledge, this worthy ... a rich harvest from Her Majesty’s hard-pressed and down-trodden subjects. Of what worth the census will be after passing through such processes, I leave it to the government and the public to judge,” concludes Drew.
An informal process of enumeration was on in India since 1849, when Gov-general Dalhousie asked the local presidencies to record revenue collection details. The first was in 1851-52, the second in 1856-57. The revenue collection details of 1871 were merged into the first official census in 1871 recorded during the tenure of Lord Mayo. TNN L E T T E R TO T H E E D I TO R Ihad occasion to visit the village of Sulkea (24-Parganas). People...began to interrogate me as to the real intention of the census, about which they had heard very diverse accounts. Towards end of the...week there arrived a police official from the local thana...authorizing him to take the census. After making the purport of his visit known, he let them into the secret of the real intentions of the government. He informed that the “Kumpani” had it in mind to levy a tax upon “families”; and that the incidence of it would be heaviest upon the largest (family). He made them to understand that he was not quite in agreement with the sircar, and was prepared for a small consideration (only a few pice) to make it easy by scaling down the number in each family to hide the truth. The Times of India
