The first phase of the 2027 Census – the Household and Lodging List (HLO) – has been completed in 23 states and union territories so far, a government statement said on Tuesday.
A 15-day self-enumeration process is underway in Kerala and Nagaland, followed by a field operation starting on July 1 and continuing till July 30, she added.
Field operations for this phase began in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday and are already underway in Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Puducherry and Uttar Pradesh.
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“Residents who have completed the self-count are asked to keep their self-count ID card ready and share it with the enumerator during the field visit to complete the self-count process. Households who do not choose to self-count will be covered during the actual house-to-house visit conducted by the enumerators.”
the $The 11,718-crore census, the eighth since independence, is being conducted in two phases – the first phase is known as the Household Enumeration and Housing Census, while the second phase is the population census.
The housing inventory and census exercise, which began on April 1 and continues until September 30, will systematically list all buildings, homes and households across the country to provide a sound framework for the population census.
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Initially, the exercise will be digital, with census takers using a special mobile phone app to collect information.
During housing listing field operations, census takers will visit each house and building and ask citizens 33 questions about basic amenities in their homes, information about the head of the household, such as name and gender, ownership status, among other things.
Self-enumeration provided
For the first time, citizens are also provided with a self-enumeration platform on a specially developed website where they can answer notified questions, create an ID card and present it to the field enumerator when they come for verification, saving valuable time.
Each state would have to provide a 15-day window for self-enumeration immediately preceding month-long field operations during which enumerators would go door-to-door with their questionnaire to collect data.
The state and union territories can choose a period – 15 days of self-census followed by 30 days of field exercise – between April 1 and September 30 to complete the HLO phase.
Read also: Census 2027: From major grains to cooking fuels, 33 questions on citizens’ plate
The second phase of the census is scheduled to be conducted in February next year, during which the demographic, social and economic details of every person in the country will be recorded. Caste-related questions will also be part of the second phase.
The reference date for the 2027 Census will be 1 March 2027, for all states and union territories, except for the Union Territory of Ladakh and the snow-covered non-concurrent regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the reference date will be 1 October 2026.
