Malaysia begins national census
By IANSWednesday, July 7, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR - Multi-ethnic Malaysia, which has a significant population of people of Indian origin, began its fifth national head count Wednesday.
It was preceded Tuesday night with enumerators making a special effort to seek out homeless people in several cities.
From July 6 to Aug 22, 29,000 enumerators will visit an estimated 7.5 million homes to collect data vital for the planning and implementation of government policies.
Malaysia has an estimated population of 2.7 million.
It has 60 percent majority Malays followed by 26 percent ethnic Chinese and 7.9 percent ethnic Indians, a bulk of them Tamils settled during the British era.
Among the Indians, there are also 100,000 Sikhs/Punjabis and settlers from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and a sprinkling of people from Gujarat and northern India.
