Millions of census workers fanned out across India on Wednesday as they began a mammoth effort to document every person in the world’s second most populous country over the next three weeks.

First counted in New Delhi was President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at her pink sandstone presidential palace. Next, Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi sat with the census-takers under a banyan tree in her yard while inspecting and signing off on a 29-point questionnaire listing income, religion, education and access to basic utilities among other topics.

The details may help authorities identify areas where neglect is high, where poverty is particularly rife and where high numbers of people are unable to read or to work.

“It is the second-largest census in the world,” Vice President Hamid Ansari told Press Trust of India news agency after being counted.

India could soon rival China as the world’s most populous, however, with a yearly growth rate of about 1.4 percent.

Indian officials say the national count, taken every 10 years, is crucial for both the government and private sector to set relevant policies, programs and budgets. This is the second phase of the census, with the first last year listing some 300 million Indian households and estimating the population to be around 1.17 billion.

For the first time, the census is noting whether people live in mud huts or concrete structures, have electricity or access to toilets, and if they have ever been to school even if they don’t go anymore.

India has appointed some 2.7 million census-takers, many of them school teachers, who are also collecting name and address details to be used later in issuing identity cards as part of a National Population Register, for which citizens will also have to provide fingerprints and be photographed at some later date.

Officials warn that people trying to hide facts or give false answers may be fined up to 1,000 rupees (about $ 22).

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)