Chandigarh, Feb. 4: Stand up and be counted or find yourself left out for the next 10 years — that’s the message from the census boss to India’s billion, days before Census 2011 starts next week.

Overseeing arrangements for the population enumeration part of the exercise starting February 9, census commissioner C. Chandramouli today said this would be the biggest-ever headcount attempted in the world in peacetime.

The enumeration, which will include the homeless as well as foreigners, will end on February 28. The first phase of the census — houselisting and housing — was done last year.

“This is going to be the most elaborate exercise ever conducted in the world during peacetime, involving between 25 lakh and 27 lakh enumerators,” Chandramouli said.

“It will have many firsts like data on institutions, transgenders, sex workers, people with disabilities, slum dwellers and illegal migrants among others.”

Chandramouli said foreigners living and working in the country would be counted but their nationalities would not be recorded. “We are not including diplomats and foreign embassies in the heads and institutional counts.”

To count the homeless, the authorities have sounded out NGOs working with them to provide information.

The commissioner, however, cautioned the people against allowing enumerators to enter homes without looking at their identity cards or authorisation letters.

“The enumerators will have to show people their identity cards,” he said. “This has been made mandatory to ensure no unauthorised person gets access to people’s homes and data on personal lives.”

He also requested the people not to sign the census form without reading what the enumerator had filled up.

A helpline is being created for people to register complaints, he said. “Penal action will be taken against those who do not do their work in a proper manner.”

Enumeration forms carry bar codes and have been published in 16 languages. The first results are expected by March 31 this year.

Caste count, apart from SC/STs, will be undertaken from June to September this year. Once the count is over, the enumerators will again fan out to every home for verification.

Provisional results on key heads such as population by sex, growth rate, child population, literacy, sex ratio and child sex ratio will be made available by March end.