Noida: Preparations for Census 2027 are underway in Ghaziabad and Noida, with house listing and housing enumeration scheduled between May 22 and June 20, officials said. The exercise will be conducted entirely in digital mode for the first time, with an option for residents to self-enumerate online.Officials said Ghaziabad administration has already divided the district into 10,025 enumeration blocks for the first phase and deployed enumerators. The district has also put in place a framework, including 16 charge officers, four master trainers, 134 field trainers and over 1,600 supervisors to oversee the process.Each enumerator will cover about 150-180 households, or a population of 650-800 people, within a designated block. In rural areas, a block may comprise a full village or part of it, while in urban areas it will correspond to a clearly demarcated section of a ward.District census officer Saurabh Bhatt said officials have been trained to use mobile applications and the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal for real-time data collection and supervision. A two-day training session for senior officials and charge officers was conducted earlier this month.In contrast, preparations in Gautam Budh Nagar are still catching up. The block-mapping exercise, a prerequisite for appointing enumerators, remains incomplete.District magistrate Medha Roopam also flagged the delay during a review meeting on Monday, directing officials to expedite the process. “Demarcation of enumeration blocks is essential before field deployment. Any negligence in census work will not be tolerated,” she said.According to officials, 12 charge officers have been appointed across the district, covering three tehsils, six nagar panchayats and three development authorities. However, block demarcation under the Noida Authority is still pending.The district has, however, begun capacity building. Three master trainers have been trained at the state level. They will train 72 field trainers between March 23 and 25. These trainers will subsequently train more than 4,000 enumerators and supervisors tasked with field data collection.Officials said both districts are preparing for the country’s first fully digital census, with data to be collected through mobile applications and monitored in real time via the CMMS portal. The self-enumeration feature is expected to reduce field workload, though verification by enumerators will remain mandatory.The second phase, covering population and caste enumeration, is scheduled from Feb 9 to 28 next year, followed by a revision round from March 1 to 5.
