Citizens to self-enumerate during forthcoming census via dedicated web portal
As the Centre gears up for the forthcoming Census-2027, a special dedicated web portal will be launched for self-enumeration during the exercise, official sources have said. The Tribune reported on June 18 that the National Population Register (NPR) will be updated digitally as part of the humungous exercise.
Sources aware of the development had told this newspaper that the digital update of the NPR would include self-updating, under which it is proposed to allow residents to update their own data fields after following authentication protocols on a web portal.
Under the exercise, enumerators will collect the data of citizens using mobile applications on their Android and Apple phones, sources said, adding that caste of household members will be enumerated in the forthcoming exercise.
It will also be the first time in the country that citizens will get a chance to self-enumerate through a dedicated web portal which will be available for both the phases of Census – Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO) and Population Enumeration.
“Digital Census initiative is a transformational step towards modernising the process. For the first time, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data," an official said.
Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage.
HLO will start from April 1, 2026, followed by the second phase starting on February 1, 2027, in which Population Enumeration will be conducted.
Reference date for the Census 2027 will be 00:00 hrs of March 1, 2027, and 00:00 hrs of October 1, 2026, for Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir and snowbound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
It will be the 16th Census since start of the exercise in the country and 8th after the Independence, for which a gazette notification was issued on June 16.
The Registrar General of India (RGI) has put in place a three-tier focused and need-based training for each phase – national trainer, master trainer and field trainer.
The field trainers will train around 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors for the massive exercise.
The RGI has told states and union territories to make any proposed changes in the boundaries of administrative units before December 31, when they will be considered final for the census exercise.
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