Goa, April 17 -- India on Thursday commenced its long-awaited national census, aiming to count its population of an estimated 1.4 billion people after years of delay, partly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first phase of the massive exercise has begun across five states and three Union Territories, marking the start of a year-long process to gather comprehensive demographic data across the country.

To carry out the enumeration, more than three million officials-primarily school teachers-have been mobilised. These personnel will conduct door-to-door surveys, visiting every household across India's 36 states and Union Territories, including nearly 640,000 villages, to ensure that every individual is counted.

The census will be condu...