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Census to begin tomorrow

Over two million enumerators will fan across the country Friday visiting about 20 million households covering about a billion-strong population in the third millennium's first census of India, one of the biggest administrative exercises in the world.

The 20-day exercise, the 14th since 1872 and sixth since Independence, will give a complete account of the socio-economic development and demographic health of the ever-burgeoning population of India.

Estimated to cost roughly over Rs 10 billion, the reference date of the census will be 00.00 hours (midnight) of March 1, 2001 while the houseless population will be enumerated on the night of February 28, 2001.

The exercise will be carried out as per schedule in Gujarat, except in Kutch and parts of Rajkot and Jamnagar districts, the worst-affected areas in last month's devastating earthquake. Fresh dates will be announced for the census in these areas later.

The first phase of house-listing operations was completed successfully between April and September 2000 while population enumeration in Jammu and Kashmir and snow-bound areas of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh has already been completed.

The census would provide comprehensive data on demogrphy, economic activity, literacy and education, housing and household amenities, urbanisation, fertility and mortality, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, language and religion and migration.

PTI

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