Census '11 begins, 3 weeks to count billion-plus

President Pratibha Patil answered 29 questions posed by an enumerator for the 2011 Census on Wednesday, kicking off the decadal exercise to count India’s billion-plus population over the next three weeks.

President Pratibha Patil answered 29 questions posed by an enumerator for the 2011 Census on Wednesday, kicking off the decadal exercise to count India’s billion-plus population over the next three weeks.

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But Census Commissioner C Chandramouli – who accompanied Rita, the census enumerator, into Rashtrapati Bhavan and other dignitaries – hoped the affluent elsewhere in Delhi, and the country too would open their doors to enumerators. Enumerators have told the government the rich often did not allow them into the house.

Chandramouli's office is tasked with carrying out the decadal census, a monumental exercise that involves training 25 lakh school teachers to go door-to-door to fill 24 crore questionnaires over a three-week window. This exercise will cost Rs 2,200 crore which is a per capita cost of Rs 18.