VizChitra 2025

DESCRIPTION

The Great Indian Census is a walkthrough art installation/exhibit that recounts the history and evolution of the census in independent India. Collecting demographic data and describing people’s lives, needs and realities has always been key to understanding the growing population of the country, especially as the same tool had been used as a method of categorisation and control by the British colonial state.

In a set of 9 standing or wall-mounted panels (one for pre-independence, one each for the eight censuses conducted between 1951-2011 and one for the present day) created from sunboard, the installation will include descriptions of the censuses from each time period, showcasing changes in methodology and data collection. One key data insight will also be highlighted for each census, along with a policy decision taken as a result of it, to contextualise its standing and ramifications for a developing nation.

Data and information will be presented in an interactive, tactile way such that viewers can walk through or alongside the panels and engage with the depicted data. In the final panel, which will highlight the lack of timely census data since the previous census in 2011, viewers will be invited to self-report data about themselves in the tradition of the ‘individual slips’ traditionally used to collect census data.

TAKEAWAYS

• The magnitude of the census-taking activity is put into context not just in terms of sheer scale, but also in terms of the evolving repository of data developed over time.
• The installation also highlights the effects that missing data has on India’s political and social realities.

INTENDED AUDIENCE

Anyone who has used census data for decision-making at any level (most or all scientists, researchers, students, educators, development practioners, entrepreneurs, designers... refer to census 2011 for a comprehensive list of occupations)

SUBMISSION BY:

Ishita Mathur
Ishita is a seasoned leader in AI & ML and a BCG Consultant, with over 6 years of experience building & leading Data Science teams across various startups in India. Her focus has been on NLP, Search & Personalization models . Ishita has a bachelors in Physics from St. Stephen’s (Delhi) and a masters in Data Science from the University of Edinburgh, and is now pursuing an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.

Jayesha M. Koushik
Jayesha is a design and qualitative researcher with over 5 years’ experience working in the social impact sector in India. She holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford. Having worked in domains like education and women’s entrepreneurship, she believes that the two indispensable tools for any researcher are curiosity and chai.