Mumbai: The long delayed Census 2027 is set to begin in Maharashtra on Friday, with self-enumeration of household data, including its assets and condition. This will be the country’s first digital census with details collected on smartphones.The first phase will run from May 1-June 14 and focus on house-listing or gathering details of households. The second phase, on population count and composition, will begin in Feb next year. The phase of self-enumeration will run from May 1-15. Citizens have been encouraged to register their household details on se.census.gov.in. Any member of the household can do the self-enumeration and the process will take 15-20 minutes. They will then receive their self-enumeration ID (SE ID) on their registered email or mobile number. No documents are required to be uploaded for self-enumeration. The SE ID will then have to be shared during the physical visit of the enumerator and it will be uploaded after confirmation. All census-related communication through SMS/OTP will have RGICEN as the keyword. Regardless of whether a household has participated in self-enumeration, census staff will visit individual homes between May 16 and June 14 to collect household data. “Participation in the census is not mandatory, but we strongly urge the public to take part in large numbers. The data collected is secure,” said chief principal census officer (Maharashtra) Nirupama Dange. She said census information is confidential and cannot be used in a police case or sought under RTI Act. There are 33 questions to be answered for data on house-listing. These include predominant material of the wall and roof of the house, sex of the head of the household, whether s/he belongs to the SC/ST category, number of rooms, number of married couples, main source of drinking water, lighting and fuel, availability of LPG connection, and access to TV or the internet. A new question is: main cereal consumed in the household. Asked whether the census will include details on castes, Dange said, “This relates to the population census, which will begin in Feb 2027. The guidelines for that are yet to be sent by the Centre.” On whether slum households will be counted in the household data, officials said arrangements had been made to include them. Around 2.6 lakh field functionaries will be deployed for the house-listing exercise. Officials said they will mainly use teachers since they enjoy high public credibility.
