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Preface

Houselisting Operation is an important precursor to the exercise of undertaking the decennial Population Census. One of the purposes of houselisting operations is to identify each building, structure and place to find out its usage - residential, non-residential, or any other purpose - so as to enable drawing up a frame for the population census, which follows this exercise. The cardinal principle is to cover the entire country, its plains, hills, deserts, forests, islands, rivers, everywhere on a systematic basis so as to avoid leaving any area or house at the time of population enumeration. During this exercise the entire country is divided into small and manageable census units, known as Enumeration Blocks, to be covered by an enumerator for collecting necessary information in the prescribed Houselist Schedule. This phase lasts for about a month, different for different State and Union territories depending upon a variety of factors. About twenty lakh (or 2 million) enumerators went round their Enumeration Blocks and collected information from each household on housing conditions, amenities and assets available. Houseless households were not covered during this phase. 

            Being the first Census of the third millennium and of the twenty-first century and in view of the fact that there has been a perceptible change in the life style of the people, it was considered appropriate to collect information, which would help understand the living condition in the vast stretch of our country. As India completed over half a century of her free rule, it was time for stocktaking of the impact of the various measures initiated in the field of socio-economic development. Many regular and new items, on which information was collected at the household level, provide valuable insight and help to identify the areas and level of disparity in respect of availability of certain basic amenities and assets to the people. Thus the hitherto undertaken Houselisting Operations of the previous censuses was transformed into a Housing Census. This now enables us to know not only where people live but also how people live. The dataset in this volume allows us to measure the level of quality of life and the pace of the change for the billion plus population of our country at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Several benchmark indicators of the quality of life have now been recorded for the posterity and it is up to the government and our people to keep improving the overall welfare and quality of life in the twenty first century and measure the changes with the benchmark recorded now.

            The number and the length of the tables generated on the Houselist data have increased manifold as a result of collection of new data and increase in the administrative boundaries since 1991. The tables provide aggregates at various administrative levels like India, State, District, Sub-district and for rural, urban and total areas. At City levels, the tables are produced only in electronic format. Unlike previous Censuses, all the Houselist tables are on a full count basis and not on a sample basis. This is a path breaking trend setter and possibly several as a boon for generating small area statistics.

             One of the most striking features of the 2001 Census is the user friendly mode of disseminating the results of this huge and painstaking exercise. Mainly due to the popularity of computers and availability of the computing skills on the one hand and the availability of Internet technology on the other, the dissemination of 2001 Census provisional data and its consequent use by various cross sections of data users within the country and abroad, was instantaneous. Continuing this strategy the results based on Houselisting Operation will be available in paper prints as hard copies, data sheets, pamphlets etc., on compact disks, and on the Internet at the Census of India website. The facility of generating thematic maps based on Houselist data using Internet GIS technology at the Census GIS India website will surely continue to help spatial analysis by the data users and fascinate them because of the easy of use. The facility introduced by the census organization for generating customized tables, as far as practical and possible, at the users request, would help in realizing the full potential in mining of the huge data stock concerning more than one billion population. For those data users who need some assistance in using census data or extracting information from published or unpublished data on Houselisting Operation, consultancy services are being made available.

             There are altogether 60 tables generated on Houselist data for 2001 Census, out of which 12 tables would be made available only in the electronic format. This publication provides Houselisting Tables relating to the general population at India and State level. Similar tables in respect of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes households will be made available through a separate volume.

             The present volume is based on the data collected at the Houselisting Operation in the year 2000 throughout India. I take this opportunity in thanking the Central Government, all the State Governments, their State and district officials and the supervisors and enumerators who made it possible to collect this mammoth dataset within prescribed time period. I also thank all the Directors of Census Operations and their dedicated team, who could make this operation possible due to their untiring efforts and devotion not only to their duty but also to their overall responsibility towards the society. Finally, I would like to place on record our gratitude towards the people of India for their patience, helpful attitude and active cooperation in participating in this fascinating yet so daunting exercise.

             Over 9 million Houselist Schedules were scanned and initially processed at the fifteen Data Centres across the country. The data were then brought to the Headquarters at New Delhi for further processing, checking and generating tables. I thank all the members of the Data Processing Division for speedier processing of data. Special thanks are due to Mr Himakar, Additional Director, Mr BL Jain, Joint Director, Mr AK Srivastava, Deputy Director, Mr Bala Krishnan, Deputy Director, and other officials of the Data Processing Division of this office.  I would also like to place on record my deep appreciation to all the officials and staff of the fifteen Data Centres who rose to the occasion and adopted the new data processing technology with considerable ease.

The Census Division of this office was responsible for planning and executing the Houselist Operation throughout the country with the able assistance of the Directorate of Census Operations in each State and Union territory. The processed data were examined and checked by a Task Force constituted for the purpose with the able assistance of the officers of the Census Division in my office and the Census Directorates. This dedicated group was responsible for scrutinizing the tables for consistency and quality thus making it ready for publication. I thank Mr RG Mitra, Deputy Registrar General, Mr SP Sharma, Consultant (Retired), Mr AK Singh, Deputy Director, Mrs Suman Prashar, Deputy Director, Mr HK Kaushal, Assistant Director and Mr PK Abrol, Assistant Director and other dedicated band of officers at the ORGI for their uncompromising attitude and untiring devotion to work.

             Even great efforts are left unnoticed in the background unless suitably brought out in public domain for public use with carefully crafted dissemination strategy. The Data Dissemination Wing of this office took upon the task of radically altering the mode in which Census data would be presented so as to make them available to the ever growing fraternity of census data users. The design of the tables, the reports, the CD-Rom or the web pages and timely printing are the handiwork of the Data Dissemination Wing. I thank Mr C Chakravorty, Joint Director and his team for their untiring efforts in presenting census data in a user friendly format, ready for use to the exponentially growing number of census data users in the country and abroad.

Jayant Kumar Banthia
Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India
New Delhi, 8th April 2003