Some of the shortcomings of India's census enumeration in 1971 are reviewed with a view toward improving the census of 1981. Attention is directed to census organization, pre-testing of census schedules, training, preparatory census work maps, houselisting, and enumeration. At the district level, the census work was assigned to District Collectors or District Revenue or Planning Officers in their honorary capacities, in addition to their normal duties. The least that can be done to improve the 1981 census is to relieve these officers of their normal duties for the requisite duration extending from preparation of houselisting to the return of census count. If the pre-testing of census schedules had partly required canvassing of various schedules by enumerators in the presence of senior persons responsible for finalizing the census schedules and the manual of instructions, the enumerators could have acquainted themselves with the problems in canvassing the various schedules and questions. The training program for enumerators and supervisors was organized in such a way that at times there were about 60-100 persons gathered together in a room, and the training was simply inadequate. The classroom training needs to be followed up by supervised practical exercises for administering the census schedule. The boundaries of all the national maps for each block need to be physically shown to enumerators to avoid lapses. The manual of instructions fails to spell out clearly the difference between a building and a census house. There are several other difficulties created by inadequate or insufficient instructions regarding houselisting. The tendency of getting the information by any means or using any available person as the respondent on the part of the enumerator has serious implications for the quality of data. It is suggested that the scope of census-taking be limited to a bare minimum necessary for administrative and constitutional purposes. It is further suggested that the operation be confined to the houselisting stage.