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.

自本周三起，印度将派出数百万人口普查员展开为期三周的人口普查工作。印度人口总量位居全球第二，普查任务十分艰巨。

First counted in New Delhi was President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at her pink sandstone presidential palace.

印度总统普拉蒂巴•德维辛格•帕蒂尔在她粉红砂岩的总统府内接受了人口普查，成为首位在新德里接受普查的公民。

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

副总统哈米德•安萨里在接受普查后告诉印度报业托拉斯：“这是全球第二大人口普查。”

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

然而，随着该国人口年增长约1.4%，印度人口即将超过中国，成为世界上人口最多的国家。

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.

印度官员表示，十年一度的人口普查对于政府和私营部门制定有关政策、计划和预算都至关重要。目前已进入普查的第二阶段。在去年的第一阶段中，共有3亿户家庭接受普查，估计人口总数约为11.7亿。