India has kicked off a mammoth exercise to count its entire population – all 1.4 billion of them, give or take a few, in a census initially delayed by the pandemic then administrative issues.
Over the next year, more than three million people will go door-to-door, traveling through megacities and remote villages, to tally up every household and resident of India – and collect data on their social and economic characteristics.
For the first time in almost 100 years, the survey will include caste – a controversial decision that some say could further entrench divisions.
The final count will not be known until next year, underscoring the vast scale of an exercise that seeks to capture the contours of one of the world’s most diverse and complex societies.
Here’s what to know.
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