Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir is leading among the Union Territories and ranked eighth among states in the country in the self-enumeration phase of Census 2027, a senior Census official said, adding that over 6.67 lakh households voluntarily have submitted their details through the official portal.
He said that 6,67,517 households in Jammu and Kashmir and 7,009 households in Ladakh completed self-enumeration before the commencement of house listing operations (HLO), which began on Monday.
The official appealed to all residents of Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh to extend full cooperation to enumerators and supervisors visiting households during the month-long census exercise.
“J&K has emerged as the leading Union Territory and 8th among states in the country in self-enumeration under census 2027. Over 6.67 lakh households voluntarily submitted their details through the official Self-Enumeration portal,” Chief Principal Census Officer and Director Census Operations for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Amit Sharma told reporters here.
Describing the response as highly encouraging, Sharma said, “Residents across districts actively participated in the exercise, with Pulwama, Jammu and Kulgam recording particularly strong responses”.
He also appreciated the participation of residents from Leh and Kargil districts in Ladakh. Sharma thanked district administrations, principal census officers, field functionaries, media organisations and residents for contributing to the successful completion of the self-enumeration phase.
Appealing to the public to cooperate with census staff, he said enumerators and supervisors would visit households during the month-long house listing operations, a key phase of census 2027 aimed at collecting information on housing and living conditions.
Highlighting preparations for the nationwide exercise, Sharma said house listing block demarcation and geo-tagging activities have been virtually completed across the two Union territories.
“More than 23,600 house listing blocks have been demarcated in Jammu and Kashmir and 567 in Ladakh”, he said.
He added that extensive training programmes have been conducted for master trainers, field trainers, enumerators and supervisors to ensure uniform and professional conduct of census operations, including in remote areas.
According to Sharma, over 27,000 census kits have already been dispatched across Jammu and Kashmir and around 800 kits distributed in Ladakh to facilitate field operations.
He urged residents to provide accurate information during the exercise, saying the data collected would help in effective planning and implementation of welfare programmes.
Sharma also assured citizens that all information collected during census operations would remain confidential under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948, and would be used solely for statistical purposes.
Individual data, he said, is legally protected and cannot be shared with any agency or institution.
The officer further said special arrangements have been made to ensure coverage of remote, border, tribal, migratory and nomadic populations so that no household or individual is left out of the census process.
Speaking on the occasion, Press Information Bureau Director, Jammu, Neha Jalali said Census 2027 would be India’s first fully digital census, featuring mobile-based data collection and caste enumeration supported by robust institutional preparedness and data infrastructure.
She said the house listing and housing operations would collect information on buildings, households, housing conditions, family composition and living arrangements, which would support informed policymaking and development planning.
Jalali stressed the importance of public awareness and media participation in ensuring the successful conduct of census operations and called upon media organisations to continue disseminating authentic information about Census 2027.
