New Delhi: Centre Friday amended the Census Rules, 1990, allowing states and Union territories to appoint teachers of “aided or unaided private bodies” as enumerators during the ongoing census exercise, officials said.
In a gazette notification issued by Registrar General of India (RGI) Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, the Centre amended the 1990 rules, which said “teachers, clerks, or any official or any person” can be appointed as census officers by the state government and Union territories as enumerators.
Friday’s notification specifies that “teachers of any educational institution of the government, local authority, aided or unaided private bodies, societies or trusts; (ii) Clerks or any official of the Central government, state government, local authority or establishment (including public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts); (iii) Any person, as the state government or the Union territory administration may consider suitable” can be appointed as Census officers to perform duties as an enumerator.
The changes come against the backdrop of a petition filed by Haryana Progressive Schools Conference in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging the requisition and deployment of teaching staff from private unaided schools for census duty.
In an order dated October 8, Justice Harpreet Singh Brar had stayed the operation of two Haryana government communications seeking details of available teachers for census duty. The matter has now been listed for April 29, 2027.
The petitioner contended that the government has no statutory authority under the Census Act, 1948, or the rules framed thereunder to requisition the teaching staff of private unaided schools for appointment as enumerators or supervisors for census duty.
The plea said that Section 4A of the Census Act specifically contemplates making available officers and staff of local authorities for census-related work, whereas private unaided schools and their employees do not fall within the definition or scope of “local authority”.
The 2027 Census, the eighth since Independence, is being conducted in two phases: 1) house-listing and housing census; 2) population enumeration.
The decennial exercise, scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for conducting the census, which will be the biggest headcount exercise to date.
Population enumeration in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and areas other than the snow-bound regions of Uttarakhand will take place from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, because of the Assembly elections scheduled there for next year.
The Centre has deferred the house-listing operations for Census 2027 for Manipur, a notification issued by the RGI said last month.
The exercise in Ladakh and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand took place from September 1 to 30.
For the rest of the country, the exercise is likely to begin next February, during which data on various demographic, socio-cultural and economic parameters, along with migration and fertility characteristics of individuals from each household, will be collected.
PTI
