New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday alleged “mischief” behind the amended Census Rules and claimed that the government wants to make Census 2027 a “Rozgar Guarantee Yojana” for thousands of RSS-BJP workers by allowing them as enumerators in the exercise.
The Centre on Friday amended the Census Rules, 1990, allowing states and Union territories to appoint teachers of “aided or unaided private bodies” or “any other person” as enumerators during the Census.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the Modi government has now expanded the list of eligible enumerators for Census 2027.
“There is much mischief behind it,” he alleged.
The Congress leader claimed that the RSS held a big training camp in Karnataka’s Belgaum from July 10 to July 12 for its cadre on the single-point agenda of Census 2027.
“The High-Level Committee on Demographic Changes set up by the Union Home Ministry on May 26, 2026 has just asked for inputs from the public, including Indian and foreign organisations, on demographic changes in the country. The only thing high level of this committee is the affiliation of its members to the RSS ecosystem. So we know where these inputs will come from,” Ramesh alleged in a post on X.
He said the Census notification of October 16 has to be seen in light of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) July 10-12 training camp and the demographic change committee’s call for inputs on October 14.
“It is clear this is a Rozgar Guarantee Yojana for thousands of RSS/BJP workers. This will most certainly further contaminate an already subverted Census. Another institution is being destroyed. Like SIR, the Census will also be dangerously doctored.
“There are no limits to the diabolical designs of the PM-HM duo,” Ramesh alleged, hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
A gazette notification issued by Registrar General of India (RGI) Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan says “teachers, clerks, or any official or any person” can be appointed as census officers by states and Union territories as enumerators.
The notification specifies that “teachers of any educational institution of the government, local authority, aided or unaided private bodies, societies or trusts; (ii) Clerks or any official of the central government, state government, local authority or establishment (including public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts); (iii) Any person, as the state government or the Union territory administration may consider suitable” can be appointed as Census officers to perform duties as an enumerator.
The changes come as various high courts across the country have given relief to teachers of aided or unaided private schools from being roped in for duties as enumerators during the ongoing Census.
