SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 September 2025, Shift 3 · General Awareness · Question 11 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are given below. Choose the correct option: Assertion (A): The Population Enumeration phase of Census 2011 in most parts of India was conducted in February 2011. Reason (R): House Listing and Housing Census was postponed to ensure simultaneous data collection.

(a)Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
(b)Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
(c)A is true, but R is false
(d)A is false, but R is true

Answer

Why

Correct — C. A is true. Census 2011 canvassed its questionnaire from 9 to 28 February 2011, then ran a revision round on 1–5 March to update the count to 00:00 hours, 1 March 2011.

R is false. The Houselisting and Housing Census was not postponed. It came first, between 1 April and 30 September 2010, in different States and UTs → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A — R is false, so it can explain nothing. Houselisting was not moved to run alongside enumeration: it was held in April–September 2010.
(b)
Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A — This still takes R as true. Houselisting was notified for, and held in, April–September 2010, months before the February 2011 headcount.
(d)
A is false, but R is true — A is true. The Census's own Introductory Note records the canvassing from 9 to 28 February 2011, with snow-bound areas done in September 2010.

Concept

Census 2011, India's 15th census since 1872 and the 7th since Independence, ran in two phases.

First, the Houselisting and Housing Census, April to September 2010, collected information on buildings and houses.

Then Population Enumeration: enumerators visited every household from 9 to 28 February 2011. A revision round noted births, deaths and migration up to the reference moment, 00:00 hours on 1 March 2011.

The words in most parts in A are exact. Snow-bound areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand were enumerated from 11 to 30 September 2010, with 1 October 2010 as their reference date.

Key facts

Population Enumeration, Census 2011: 9 to 28 February 2011, with a revision round on 1 to 5 March 2011.
Reference moment: 00:00 hours on 1 March 2011.
Snow-bound areas of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand: 11 to 30 September 2010, reference date 1 October 2010.
Houselisting and Housing Census: between 1 April and 30 September 2010.

Study next

Census 2011 headline results: population, sex ratio, literacyThe Census Act, 1948 and the Registrar General & Census CommissionerThe extended de facto method of census taking

Common traps

Accepting R because the census has one reference moment. That moment comes from the revision round, not from merging the two phases.
Placing houselisting after enumeration. It came first, in 2010.

Census 2011 results are asked at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.17 (male–female literacy gap) and 24 Sep 2024, 16:00, GA Q.23 (growth rate). This item tests how the count was run instead.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Geography — all 135 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.