NEW DELHI, JUL 1 (PTI): Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan has directed Census officials to not release “provisional population figures” or “any other data” collected during the exercise to the press or for use by any other authority until further orders.
In a communique to all the Directorates of Census Operations across the country, he said all information collected during Census operations is confidential and protected under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948. “It needs to be mentioned here that the provisional population figures and/or any Census figures, based on the Houselisting or any other data contained in the Houselisting schedules/abstract should not be released to the Press or used by any authority, official or non-official until further instructions are issued in this regard by the ORGI,” it said.
Narayan said all the Census functionaries, right from the Principal Census Officer to the Enumerator and the DCO staff, should be properly sensitised regarding confidentiality of the data collected and processed during Census.
“Any breach of instructions by any official entrusted and concerned with Census Operations will be viewed seriously and erring officials will be liable for appropriate disciplinary action under the Census Act, 1948 and other appropriate Act and Rules,” it said.
Narayan said although the Census is a fully digital exercise where the data will be collected by the enumerators on their mobile devices using special applications developed for the purpose, in cases of operational contingencies such as technical issues, connectivity constraints, or other field-level exigencies, data may be collected in such exceptional cases using paper schedules provided in the Instruction Manuals. “The Charge Officer shall ensure that data entry (on the Census portal) of all Houselisting Blocks (HLBs), where data has been collected in paper mode, is completed within 7 days after completion of the HLO (Houselisting Operations) period,” the directives from the RGI said.
The records will be dispatched in properly packed boxes to the Directorate of Census Operations through the Postal Department, it said. The RGI emphasised that the laid-down norms be followed in packing and record-keeping of data collected during the Census.
The Census, which is the eighth since Independence, is being conducted in two phases — the first stage is known as house listing and housing census, and the second stage is the population enumeration.
Field visits for the housing listing and housing census began on April 16 in several states and UTs and will continue till September 30, during which all structures, houses and households nationwide will be listed to provide a solid foundation for the population enumeration.
The second phase, called the Population Enumeration phase, is likely to begin in February next year, barring snowbound regions, during which data on various demographic, socio-cultural, and economic parameters, along with migration and fertility characteristics of individuals from each household, will be collected.
The caste enumeration for the Census 2027 will also be done in the “second phase” of the population headcount, which will start in February 2027 for the entire country except in snowbound regions, non-synchronous areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where it will take place in September 2026.
The mammoth exercise is the largest source of primary data at the village, town, and ward levels, providing micro-level data on various parameters, including Housing Condition, Amenities and Assets, Demography, Religion, SC and ST, Language, Literacy & Education, Economic Activity, Migration, and Fertility.
