Census in Indian-administered Kashmir

The Indian authorities are carrying out a census in Indian-administered Kashmir -- the first after a gap of twenty years.

More than twenty thousand government workers have been deployed across the state to gather information.

The state's director of census operations, Feroz Ahmed, said they would begin by listing private houses, industrial and commercial buildings and recording the availabaility of electricity, water and other basic facilities.

Mr Ahmed said the actual counting of the population would take place in September. In 1991 -- the time of the last Indian census -- Indian-administered Kashmir was left out because of separatist violence.

Correspondents say security is much worse now, but people have learnt to live with it.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service