New Delhi: India on Wednesday launched its first-ever fully digital census exercise, with President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah among the first to complete online self-enumeration through a newly launched portal.
The 15-day self-enumeration window, introduced for the first time in the country’s census history, opened in Delhi and seven other states and Union Territories, allowing citizens to submit their household details online before the commencement of door-to-door verification later this month.
President Murmu completed the exercise at Rashtrapati Bhavan through the Self-Enumeration (SE) portal in the presence of Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan and Deputy Director General (Census Planning) Biswajit Das.
Prime Minister Modi also filled in his details online and urged people to participate in the exercise.
“Completed my self-enumeration. Today marks the beginning of the first phase of Census 2027, relating to house listing and housing operations. This census is the first time data collection is being done through digital means,” Modi said in a post on X.
“It also empowers the people of India to self-enumerate their household details. I appeal to the people of India to self-enumerate their household details themselves and participate in the Census process,” he added.
Vice President C P Radhakrishnan and Home Minister Amit Shah also completed the online self-enumeration process.
“As part of the first phase of the Census, the ‘House Listing’ process commencing today, I filled the self-enumeration form. This process will play a crucial role in accelerating India’s development journey and ensuring that government schemes reach every citizen effectively,” Shah said.
He urged citizens to cooperate fully with the census teams when they visit homes and also encouraged them to use the self-enumeration portal.
Census 2027 has begun in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Karnataka, Sikkim, Odisha, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, and in the NDMC and Delhi Cantonment areas of the national capital.
Citizens in these areas can access the SE portal, log in using their mobile number, identify their location on the map, fill in household details and receive a unique Self-Enumeration ID.
The physical house-listing and housing census exercise will begin on April 16 in these states and Union Territories.
In Delhi, self-enumeration will be conducted in two phases — from April 1 to April 15 in NDMC and Delhi Cantonment areas, and from May 1 to May 15 in areas under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
The subsequent door-to-door house-listing operation will take place from April 16 to May 15 in NDMC and Delhi Cantonment areas and from May 16 to June 15 in MCD areas.
Officials said citizens who opt for self-enumeration will have to provide their unique ID to enumerators during the verification visit.
The SE portal and the mobile application to be used by enumerators will be available in 16 languages, including Hindi and English.
Meanwhile, Odisha Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati, Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur, Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang and Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma also completed the self-enumeration exercise in their respective states.
Census 2027, the 16th census since Independence, will be conducted in two phases — house listing and housing census, followed by the population census.
For the first time, the entire exercise will be digital, with enumerators using a specially developed mobile application to collect information.
During the house-listing phase, enumerators will ask 33 questions related to household facilities, the identity of the head of the household and ownership status, among other details.
The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for Census 2027, which will also include caste enumeration for the first time. The decennial exercise, originally scheduled for 2021, had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
