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Detailed 1961 Census Taken In India

(By K. KRISHNA MOORTtm

India’s census history goes back to the mists of antiquity. In the book “Arthasastra”, reputed to have been written in 300 B,C. by Kautilya, a commentator on political and economic affairs, there is mention of the efficiency achieved by early Indian administrators in collecting statistical information.

He refers to "a count of the population, their household effects, if only to gauge the military potential of the country as well as for purposes of taxation.” The Maurya kings, who reigned from 325 to 188 8.C., are said to have conducted periodic counts of people. Under the Guptas (A.D. 300 to 600) there were again regular census operations of a kind. During the reign of the most famous of the Maurya emperors, Chandragupta, a department was set up in the capital city of Pataliputra (now called Patna, in the eastern Indian State of Bihir) to register births, and deaths. Another department kept a record of visiting foreigners. In modern India the East India Company made an attempt in 1767 to take a rough census of the people in Madras Presidency. A second attempt was made in 1822 and a third in 1849.

The complete census on the modern pattern began in India in 1881 and since then there has been a count every 1° years. The 1961 census, whose preliminary results were announced in the end of March, was more elaborate than any earlier so as to provide statistical details to help planning. For instance, it included a separate survey of science graduates and their present job placings. The information collected and codified under 75 tables included rate of growth qf population, age groups, migration tendencies, rate and pattern of .urbanisation, occupation and livelihood patterns, literacy, land ownership, employment and housing. Population Rise

The 1961 census showed the population of India had risen to 438 million, 21.5 per cent, more than in 1951. the date of the previous census. When the Second Plan was formulated in 1955 the planners estimated that the population in 1961 would be 408 million, but a year ago the planners revised their estimates upwards to 431 million. The count shows the planners erred only by seven million in the estimates on which the Third Plan (April 1961, to April, 1966), is based. The density of population in India 1* 884 a square mile against 316 10 years ago, ano the female population has dwindled to M 0 per thousand male* as against 946 10 yean, ago. The sex ratio has been falling since the beginning of this century and, according to the Health Minister, official inquiries and public health probes have failed to fathom this mystery. The State of Kerala, in South India, has an unusual sex ratio—lo2 females for every 100 males. At the other end of the scale is Delhi, which has only 786 females for every 1600 males. Delhi, whose population rose from 1.75 million to 2.64 million in 10 years, contains some areas • which can be counted in the forefront of the world’s high-density regions. In the region including the City of Old Delhi the population density is 143,185 a square mile. (Delhi consists of the City of Old Delhi, the rural area, the Union Capital of New Delhi, and the Cantonment.) Including the suburban areas, Calcutta is the first eity with a population of 5.5 million and a density of 75,038 persons a square mile. Bombay is second with 4.15 million persons. bi project* built in the last 10 years. India remains a pt*dominantly agricultural cotojtotal. The 18-million rise in urban population contributed less than i per cent to the urban population’s proportion to the total. The highest increase of 34.3 per cent, in population was in the north-eastern State of Assam and the second biggest

increase was in West Bengal State (capital Calcutta) with 32.94 per cent. The smallest increase in population was in Madras State, South India, with 11.7 per cent. Madras offers about £3 to husbands or wives who sterilise themselves.

It took a million persons to count India’s 438 million in an operation which cost £1.5 million. Many of the enumerators became parrotlike in their tiring task of asking questions. In West Bengal, an enumerator who asked a housewife: "What is your sex?” was hounded out and lost his papers. In New Delhi the well-educated wife of a high official was asked: “How long have you been staying in this house with this husband?” The enumerator was full of apologies when she retorted: “What do you mean? I have some other husband in some other house?” In Bombay, asked what her husband was doing, a woman replied: “He is living with his second wife.” Staff Sacked In some remote villages in central India the census staff collected money as they counted heads. They were promptly sacked when the authorities learnt of the levies. In one village in Central India the enumerators were caught in the crossfire between dacoits (bandits) and villagers. When they left the village they crossed out the names of four who were killed in the fight. In another village bandits took an enumerator to be a police spy, manhandled him and destroyed his census papers. In a South Indian village a census official had to shoot a tiger which was lifting their cattle, before villagers permitted census operations to proceed. The orthodox Hindu wives generally refused to utter the

names of the husbands and the enumerators asked the neighbours. But one Madras housewife, eager to lessen the labours of the enumerators. told him her husband had the same name as the household deity and named the temple where the deity was; the official guessed the name correctly. Thousands of rich families in the State of Rajasthan refused details of their vocation for fear the income tax officials would be on their track soon afterwards.— (Associated Newspapers Feature Services.)

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19610429.2.185

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 14

Word count
Tapeke kupu
983

Detailed 1961 Census Taken In India Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 14

Detailed 1961 Census Taken In India Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 14

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