Census: 24.25 lakh housing blocks mapped across India

NEW DELHI, NOV 9 (PTI): The Registrar General of India (RGI) has digitally mapped 24.25 lakh Houselisting Blocks (HLBs), micro-units of up to 800 individuals, to facilitate Census 2027, an official communique said.
The mapping was carried out using the Houselisting Block Creator (HLBC) Web Mapping Application, an ancillary application of the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS), developed to monitor the census exercise in near real time.
RGI and Census Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said the digital demarcation had created a geospatial framework for the exercise.
The Houselisting Operation (HLO), the first phase of Census 2027, has been completed across all states and Union Territories except Manipur. The census will be conducted in two phases: house listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration.
Each HLB will normally serve as an Enumeration Block (EB) for the population count. In a letter to states and Union Territories, Narayan said mapping activities must be completed before population enumeration begins.
These include correcting administrative unit boundaries, resolving overlapping HLBs, identifying uncovered habitation areas and splitting blocks with excessive enumerator workloads into Sub-Enumeration Blocks. Supervisory Circle Maps will also have to be prepared.
Narayan said timely completion of the work was essential to ensure complete geographical coverage without omissions or duplication and to ensure operational preparedness for population enumeration.
The decennial census, originally scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the exercise, which will be the country’s headcount.
Population enumeration in Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, and areas other than snow-bound parts of Uttarakhand, will take place from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, due to assembly elections.
In Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the exercise was conducted from September 1 to 30. In the rest of the country, population enumeration is scheduled from January 25 to February 28, 2027.
The Centre has deferred house-listing operations in Manipur, according to an RGI notification issued last month.