Ahmedabad: The first phase of the Population Census-2027 will begin across Gujarat on Monday, with the launch of a month-long houselisting exercise completely conducted through digital means for the first time.
Running from June 1 to June 30, the Houselisting and Housing Census Operations (HLO) will see over one lakh enumerators visiting households across every district, urban local body, and village to map living conditions and amenities, officials said on Sunday.
Director of Census Operations in Gujarat, Sujal Mayatra, said the exercise marks the 16th census in the country and the eighth after Independence.
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"In this phase, enumerators will ask 33 questions covering housing status, family details, source of drinking water, toilet facilities and household assets," Mayatra said in a statement.
The second phase, involving population enumeration (PE) and caste census, will be conducted from February 9 to February 28, 2027, he said.
According to the Directorate of Census Operations, Gujarat has 1,10,598 house listing blocks (HLBs), and 1,09,038 enumerators and 18,254 supervisors have been deployed for the exercise.
Authorities have also completed three rounds of training for enumerators, supervisors and census officers to ensure smooth conduct of the operations.
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Mayatra appealed to citizens to cooperate with census staff and provide accurate information during the exercise.
The Centre had also introduced a self-enumeration facility on the official portal to enable citizens to submit details online between May 17 and May 31.
The senior official said that more than 3.74 lakh citizens in Gujarat had participated in the self-enumeration drive launched on May 17 as part of Census-2027.
"Out of these, around 3.30 lakh self-enumeration forms have been completed, while nearly 44,000 forms are still under process," he said.
Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, ministers, senior bureaucrats, district collectors and municipal commissioners were among those who participated in the self-enumeration campaign, officials said.
The census exercise will use Android and iOS-based applications capable of offline data collection in 16 languages, including Gujarati.
Mayatra reiterated that all information collected under the Census Act, 1948, and Census Rules, 1990 would remain strictly confidential and could not be used for legal or taxation purposes.
"It is mandatory under the law for every citizen to provide true and complete information during census operations. The law also provides penalties for refusal to furnish information," he said in the statement.
For census-related queries, citizens have been advised to contact the toll-free helpline number 1855 or visit the official website of the Census of India.
