Essay on “Census of India” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Census of India

Essay No. 1

          The provisional data of the Census 2011 was made public on March 31, 2011. It stated that India’s population has touched a new figure of 1.21 billion with a rise of over 181 million from the last decade. Now, India’s population has touched the combined population of the well-known countries like the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Japan that is 1,214.3 million. It is the 15^th Census of India since 1872 and has presented many significant facts some of which are encouraging, while some discouraging as well. The most significant encouraging trend that decade witnessed was the addition of a smaller population than the decade that had just preceded, i.e., 1991-2001. The significant fact that has come to light is within the last 6 years. 5 States- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan have added considerably to the population growth as half of the kids in these States belong to the age group of 1 to 6. During the past decade (1991-2001) these two States had shown the growth of 25.9 percent and 28.9 percent, respectively, whereas during the present decade (2001-2011) the growth has come down to 20.1 percent, respectively.

          Kerala has also shown a declining trend in population growth by 9.4 percent, which is very enc9ouraging. One point is a must remember that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have taken together alone account for 25 percent of India’s overall population of 121 crores and any trend that pinpoints the decline in population growth is very heartening.

          The Census figures indicate an increase in sex ratio in 20 States and Union Territories, with women outnumbering in Kerala. There were 1,084 women against 1000 men in Kerala, followed by Pondicherry where the figure was 1038. Daman and Diu have a sex ratio of 618, next only to Dadra and Nagar Haveli at 775. Among the districts, Make has the highest sex ratio of 1,176 followed by Almora in Uttarakhand, where it is 1,142. The three major States of Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, and Gujarat have shown a decline in the sex ratio compared with the figures of Census 2001, while 29 States and Union Territories have shown an increase.

          It is not without significance that for the first time since independence, India added fewer people to its population in the decade just ended than in the previous one. While decadal population growth rates have consistently been declining since the 1960s, the absolute addition in each decade was always higher than in the previous decade. That has now changed.

Census of India

Essay No. 2

A census is a procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include agriculture, business, and traffic censuses. In the latter cases, the elements of the population are farms, businesses, and so forth, rather than people.

The decennial census of India is the primary source of information about the demographic characteristics of the population of India. The 2011 census can be one of the largest censuses in the history of mankind.

The first census in India in modern times was conducted in 1872. The first regular census was started in 1881 by Lord Ripon. Since then, a population census has been carried out every 10 years. The latest census commenced on 1 May 2010. It will create a National Population Register with photographs and fingerprints of every resident. All usual residents of India will also be provided with their Unique ID numbers and National Identity Cards. The census is carried out by the office of the Register General and Census Commissioner of India, Delhi, an office in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, under the 1948 Census of India Act. The act gives Central Government many powers like to notify a date for Census, power to ask for the services of any citizen for census work. The law makes it compulsory for every citizen to answer the census questions truthfully. The Act provides penalties for giving false answers or not giving answers at all to the census questionnaire. One of the most important provisions of law is the guarantee for the maintenance of secrecy of the information collected at the census of each individual. The census records are not open to inspection and are also not admissible in evidence. The census is conducted in two phases: first, house listing and house numbering phase, and second, the actual population enumeration phase. The census is carried out by the canvassing method. In this method, each and every household is visited and the information is collected by a specially trained enumerator. They collect data related to households e.g number of members, water & electricity supply, ownership of land, vehicles, computers, and other assets and services. In the second phase, the total population is counted and statistics related to individuals are collected.

Population The population of India at 0:00 hours of 1 March 2011 was 1,210.193.422. India added 181 million to its population since 2001, slightly lower than the population of Brazil. India with 24% of the world’s surface area accounts for 17.5% of its population. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state with roughly 200 million people. About 5 out of 10 Indians live in the five states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh.