New Delhi: Over 60,000 households across 250 Municipal Corporation of Delhi wards in 12 districts have completed self-enumeration for Census 2027 within the first week of the exercise. The process will continue till May 15.After that, enumerators will begin extensive door-to-door verification and house-listing operations across the capital to verify the entries made by people and also to note down the details of households that have not self-enumerated.Self-enumeration, which is optional, began in two phases in Delhi. It started on April 1 in New Delhi district (Lutyens’ Delhi) and continued for 15 days, while it began on May 1 and in the remaining 12 districts.Self-enumeration under Census 2027 allows residents, including tenants, to fill in and submit household details online (https://se.census.gov.in) before an enumerator’s visit. People are required to mention information related to house type, amenities, ownership status and household profile, among other things.From April 16, the enumerators started door-to-door visits in New Delhi district to verify the self-enumeration data and freeze it, apart from covering households that did not complete self-enumeration. The door-to-door visits in the 250 wards are set to begin from May 16.In New Delhi district, officials said that enumerators have already covered more than 95% of the over 1 lakh households during the ongoing door-to-door house-listing exercise. The data collected has been frozen for submission to the central census authorities.The district has around 580 house-listing blocks, with each block covering 180 to 200 households. Across MCD areas, Delhi has nearly 46,000 house-listing blocks, each comprising 150 to 180 households.“In New Delhi, authorities have now begun random verification of house-listing entries to ensure authenticity and accuracy of the data collected. Senior district officials, including SDMs, are conducting sample-based checks and re-verification exercises on the ground. Random samples are being picked up from various categories of localities, such as VIP areas, slums and middle-class residential areas. Entries are being rechecked and discrepancies corrected,” an official involved in the exercise said.Officials said people should complete self-enumeration in the 12 Delhi districts before the May 15 deadline. They, however, clarified that households that do not opt for self-enumeration will still be fully covered under census. In such cases, enumerators will collect all details physically during door-to-door visits, though the process may take longer compared with self-enumeration.Census 2027 is the sixteenth since 1872 and the eight after Independence. Conducted under Article 246 of the Constitution and the Census Act, 1948, it will have two phases. The first is house-listing and the second, population enumeration, is scheduled for 2027.Census data is considered critical for welfare schemes, infrastructure planning, resource allocation and delimitation of constituencies.
