The Registrar General of India (RGI), Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, issued a detailed directive a week before the country’s largest administrative exercise – the 2027 Census – outlining the duties of census takers, including ensuring that all households are covered in data collection, even if multiple visits to locked premises are required, and maintaining courteous behaviour.
Census officials who fail to carry out their duties, intentionally ask any offensive or inappropriate question, or destroy any census document, may face imprisonment for up to three years and a fine of $1,000, as per the directive issued to all states and union territories (UTs), reviewed by HT.
“In order for the census operations to be conducted smoothly, it is essential that the census officers involved in conducting the House Census, Housing Census and Population Census are informed of their specific duties under the Census Act. Besides the duties, penalties have also been prescribed under Section 11 of the Census Act, 1948,” Narayan said.
For enumerators, the directive states that they must “show all buildings with their numbers, the number of census houses in each building and other important landmarks on the sketch map; assign numbers to each building and census house; carry the letter of appointment with the ID card during the field visit; and conduct appropriate investigation while maintaining courteous behavior during the field visit.”
It also said that census takers should “fill the data in the mobile application during door-to-door visits as per the instructions issued; ensure that all households/households are included within his jurisdiction; and make multiple visits if the census center is found closed.”
Likewise, the Chief Census Officers, Supervisors and District Responsible Officers were also assigned specific tasks to organize the process and monitor developments related to the decadal exercise.
Citing the penal provisions under Section 11 of the Census Act, Narayan said in his letter that “any census officer or any person required by law to assist in the conduct of the census who refuses to perform any duty imposed on him under this Act; or any census officer who willfully asks any offensive or inappropriate question; or any enumerator, translator or other member of the census staff who removes, conceals, damages or destroys any census shall be punished with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees and, in case of conviction, It shall also be punishable by imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years.”
The Home Office told Parliament last week that in the 2027 census, data will be collected on the gender of households headed by transgender people alongside male and female categories. In the 2021 Census, this data is collected under the “other” category. The population of “Others”, according to the 2011 census, is 4,87,803 people.
Last year, the Union government announced the 16th population census, which will include caste census. It will be conducted in two phases and is expected to be completed by March 1, 2027.
In the first phase, the HLO (Household Listing Process), housing conditions, assets and facilities will be collected for each household from 1 April 2026. Then, in the second phase, or PE (Population Census), demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of each person in each household will be collected from 1 February 2027.
