Introduction:

The Census of India products are extensively used in many fields. In the past decades the research scholars mostly used Census products as their property. At present even electrification, BSNL facility, water supply, etc of a village are earmarked on the basis of census population. So it becomes asset of the general public. In this connection, now it is required to analyse the quality of census products.

The word “Census” is derived from the Latin word ‘Censere’ meaning ‘to assess’ or ‘to rate’. In and around 1st/2nd Century BC, the magistrates in Rome were required to prepare population registers for the purpose of imposing taxes and also to determine the liability of adult males for compulsory military service. In the year around 3000 BC ancient Babylonia, China and Egypt had introduced cadastral surveys.

The fall of Roman Empire and the growth of feudal system brought to an end the first phase of periodical censuses. One of the earliest completed censuses involving inhabitants of all ages was taken in German city of Nuremberg in 1449. Other provincial or municipal censuses were also conducted in Switzerland in the 15th and 16th centuries AD.

Census in India:

Before independence of India, there were more than 700 princely ruled states in the Indian Dominion. For the purpose of military services, taxes, etc, number of censuses were conducted in their own efforts in the early periods. Since 1865, the preparation of the modern census was started.

During 1865-72, modern Census was conducted unsynchronously. In 1872, it has been popularly known as the first population Census of India. However, the first synchronous Census in India was held in 1881. Since then Census have been undertaken continuously once every ten years.

Census Act, 1948: For the first time, the Census Act, 1948 (Act No. 37 of 1948) came into existence. Further for the smooth conduct of the census some rules are also made in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 18 of the principal Act under which the census is conducted and which gives the legal authority to canvass the census questionnaire and also spell out the responsibilities of the main-functionaries.

Census in Manipur:

In Manipur the actual head count or modern census was conducted for the first time in 1881. However comparatives figures are available only from the census year 1901 onwards as the entire records for 1891 were destroyed during the Anglo Manipur war in that year. The Census of Manipur (India), 2001 was conducted in two distinct but inter-related phases viz., houselisting operation and population enumeration.

Houselisting Operation:

This first phase of data collection was carried out during the period from 5th May to 4th June 2000.

Altogether about 33 information were collected in this phase including

• building number,
• census house number,
• condition of census house,
• uses of census houses,
• households and
• their family numbers and
• sex and
• SC/ST,
• ownership status,
• number of dwelling rooms and their occupants,
• drinking water source,
• source of lighting,
• condition of latrine,
• drainage; bathroom,
• condition of kitchen with mode of cooking,
• family assets such as
  • Radio transistor,
  • Television,
  • Telephone,
  • Bicycle,
  • Scooter/Motor Cycle/Moped,
  • Car/Jeep/Van and
• availing of banking service.