Question

The decadal exercise of census operation is done over a period of time, but the population count is assumed to be one existing on

• A. January 1st
• B. March 1st
• C. April 1st
• D. March 31st

Hint:

The census reckoning date, not the enumeration period, decides the population figure.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understand the setup.
Counting every person in a country the size of India cannot happen in one instant, so the actual field work for the census goes on for weeks.

Step 2: Learn the fix used to solve this.
To give one clean number, planners pick a single moment, called the reckoning date, and treat everybody counted as if they existed exactly then. For India that fixed moment is midnight of 1st March of the census year.

Step 3: Check why the other dates fail.
January 1st has no role in Indian census rules. April 1st is used only when working out yearly birth and death rates, not the census count itself. March 31st looks close but is one day off the real reckoning point.

Step 4: State the answer.
The census figure is read as the population as on \[ \boxed{\text{March 1st}} \]