Census of India 2011

Yesterday afternoon one of the security guards knocked on our door and handed me this form to fill out.

India's 2011 census began in earnest yesterday.  I'm a little perplexed that one of the 2.7 million census employees didn't deliver the poorly xeroxed form.  It's also full of spelling errors, even headed "Censes of India 2011."  Is it possible this isn't really part of the official census?

Another phase in April/May will apparently include coming round to fingerprint, iris scan, and assign an identity number to everybody in India.  All 1.2 billion?  A massive undertaking indeed.  The FAQ on the official government census site is kind of interesting, but doesn't include any of the questions I had.



Here are the questions on the form (without corrections):

1. Name of family member beginning with Head of the family
2. Relation to Head of the Family
3. Male/Female
4. Date of Birth & Age
5. Presently Married Yes/NO
6. Age at time of Marriage
7. Religion - Hindu/Muslim/Christian/Sikh/Boudh/Jain
8. Caste ST/SC
9. If Physically Handicapped What type?
10. Mother Tongue
11. Languages known other than Mother tongue
12. Literate/Illiterate
13. Whether studing Last Class Passed
14. Highest Qualification and special subject taken at UG/PG level
15. Have you worked in the last year Yes/No
16. Nature of the work
17. If Business/Actual Business
18. Nature of the Business
19. Category of the work Worker/Owner/Service
20. Non-earning work/Student/House work/Retired/taking Rent
21. in search of Job Yes/No
22. Distance travelled to work in kms to work one way and transportation bus/car/cycle etc
23. place of birth City/State/District
24. Place where you were staying before coming to this place and whether from town ti the city
25. period of stay in present location
26. Number of living children
27. total number of live children born
28. number of children born last year