SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir is set to roll out a massive self-enumeration exercise for Census 2027 from May 17, with over 27,000 field functionaries deployed, more than 24,000 House Listing Blocks created, and extensive multilingual awareness campaigns planned across the Union Territory, officials said on Monday.
The preparations and implementation strategy for the Census exercise were reviewed during the third meeting of the UT-Level Census Coordination Committee chaired by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo here.
Officials informed the meeting that the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, has approved deployment of 27,784 field staff for Jammu and Kashmir, including 23,774 Enumerators and 4,014 Supervisors.
More than 24,000 House Listing Blocks have already been created across the Union Territory, with over half geo-tagged and demarcated ahead of the enumeration process.
The administration has also launched large-scale preparations for public outreach and self-enumeration awareness campaigns through print, television, radio, digital media, social media, exhibitions, mobile publicity vans and community-level programmes in multiple languages, including Urdu, Dogri and Gojri.
Officials said Self-Enumeration of VVIPs would begin on May 17, the first day of the exercise, in line with Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India to encourage wider public participation.
A thematic 15-day outreach calendar has also been prepared to mobilise participation from elected representatives, educational institutions, judiciary, uniformed services, industries, women’s groups, senior citizens, media organisations and youth groups.
During the meeting, Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo stressed the need for intensive training of Enumerators and Supervisors to ensure accuracy and reliability in data collection. He directed officials to complete formation and demarcation of House Listing Blocks well before the enumeration phase to avoid gaps in coverage.
He also called for coordinated awareness campaigns and close monitoring at district and charge levels to ensure smooth conduct of the Census process.
Additional Chief Secretary Finance, Shailendra Kumar, stressed that no household, particularly in remote and hilly areas, should be left out during the exercise.
Director Census Operations JK and Ladakh, Amit Sharma, informed the meeting that training of Field Trainers had substantially been completed by May 10, while training programmes for Enumerators and Supervisors had already commenced in several districts.
Officials further said QR-coded appointment letters and identity cards for field staff would be generated through the Census Management and Monitoring System portal after completion of training programmes.
The meeting also reviewed the status of administrative boundary updates and corrections sought by various districts before the final enumeration exercise.
