Registrar-general and Census commissioner C. Chandramouli said the information collected about individuals would be kept absolutely confidential. In fact, this information is not accessible even to courts of law. Mr Chandramouli said that except foreign embassies and consulates, all houses, religious and public places will be counted.
The biggest-ever census attempted in the history of mankind will enumerate the country’s 1.2 billion population across 35 states and Union Territories.
Enumerators will for the first time collect information like ownership of mobile phones, computers, Internet usage, access to treated or untreated drinking water facilities and usage of banking services. They will also seek additional information for the creation of a National Population Register. The `2,200-crore exercise will cover all citizens living in 7,742 towns and six lakh villages in 640 districts of India. With an expenditure of just `18.33 per person, this Census is also considered the most cost-effective.
“To carry out this massive exercise more than 2.5 million people will be engaged. The fact that many countries in the world do not have a population equal to the number of officials that conduct the Indian Census is an indication of the size of this operation,” Mr Chandramouli said.
The exercise, spread over the next 11 months, will mark a milestone as the first-ever NPR will also be prepared in which all persons aged over 15 years will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database.