Bhubaneswar: The Directorate of Census Operations, Odisha, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, in collaboration with the Revenue and Disaster Management (R&DM) department, will commence the first phase of the Census and house-listing operations across all 30 districts from April 16.
Addressing a press meet here, Census Operations Director Nikhil Pavan Kalyan informed that trained enumerators and supervisors will carry out door-to-door data collection from April 16 to May 15 using a dedicated mobile application. He highlighted that this exercise marks a major step forward, as it will be India’s first fully digital Census.
He further stated that the Self-Enumeration programme, currently underway from April 1, will continue till midnight of April 15. Citizens can submit their details online through the official portal (se.census. gov.in). So far, over 1.76 lakh families have already participated in the initiative.
Urging greater public participation, Kalyan appealed to citizens to complete the self-enumeration process within the stipulated timeline to ensure accurate and efficient data collection.
For the smooth execution of the programme, a robust administrative structure has been put in place. District Collectors and Municipal Corporation Commissioners will function as Principal Census Officers, while Additional District Collectors have been designated as District Census Officers.
Tahsildars and Executive Officers of statutory towns will serve as Charge Officers under their respective districts. The R&DM department has been appointed as the nodal agency for the exercise.
Primary school teachers from the School and Mass Education Department will act as enumerators, while high school teachers will supervise the process. A toll-free helpline (1855) has also been set up to assist citizens with queries related to the Census and House Listing operations.
As part of the awareness drive, a dedicated theme song on the Census will be formally launched during the programme. Officials noted that along with the use of digital platforms such as the CMMS portal for creating house listing blocks, the self-enumeration data will be re-verified by field enumerators to maintain accuracy.
The Directorate has appealed to the public to extend full cooperation, emphasising that citizen participation is vital for the successful implementation of this large-scale national exercise.