New Delhi, Jan 22 (PTI) The government on Thursday notified 33 questions that will be put to citizens during the first phase of the Census — houselisting and housing enumeration — starting April 1.
In a gazette notification published on Thursday, Registrar General of India, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, listed questions such as material used in house flooring and roof, number of married couples living there, sex of the head of the household, type of cereal consumed, access to basic and modern necessities, and types of vehicles owned.
The notification said, “The Central Government hereby instructs that all Census officers may, within the limits of the local areas for which they have been respectively appointed, ask all such questions from all persons on the items enumerated below for collecting information through the houselisting and housing census schedule in connection with the Census of India 2027.” The enumerators will ask about the ownership status of the house, its use, the type of material used in flooring and roof, the number of rooms, and the sex of the head of the household during the survey.
The questions will start with asking the building number (Municipal or local authority or census number), census house number, predominant material used in the floor, wall and roof of the house.
The enumerators will then ask about the use of the house, its condition, and the number of persons normally residing in the household.
Officials will also collect information about the head of the household, like the name and sex, whether the head of the household belongs to the Scheduled Caste, the Scheduled Tribe or other communities and the ownership status.
They would also ask about the number of dwelling rooms exclusively in possession of the household and the number of married couple(s) living there.
The first phase of Census 2027– houselisting operations– will take place during a 30-day period specified by each state and Union Territory between April 1 and September 30 this year.
There will also be an option for self-enumeration to be conducted in a 15-day period just before the start of houselisting operations of 30 days.
The houselisting and housing census systematically lists out all the structures, houses and households throughout the country for the preparation of a sound frame for the conduct of the population enumeration.
The Census, a Rs 11,718-crore mammoth exercise, will be conducted in two phases — house-listing and housing census from April to September; and population enumeration in February 2027.
The citizens will also be asked about the basic facilities in their houses, like the main source of drinking water, main source of lighting, access to and type of latrine, wastewater outlet, availability of bathing facility, availability of kitchen and LPG and PNG connection and the main fuel used for cooking, the notification said.
The enumerators will also collect information about radio and transistor, television, access to the Internet, gadgets like laptop, computer, telephone, mobile phone, smartphone, type of vehicle, main cereal consumed in the household and mobile number for census-related communication, it said.
The decadal exercise, which was scheduled to take place in 2021, got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Census 2027 will also capture caste data electronically in the population enumeration phase, the government had said earlier.
The last comprehensive caste-based count was done between 1881 and 1931. Caste was excluded from all census operations conducted since Independence.
The decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 30 last year.
In the first-ever digital Census, conducted by around 30 lakh enumerators, data will be collected using mobile applications that will be available for both Android and iOS versions to ensure better quality data.
The population of the country, according to the Census 2011, was 1,210.19 million, of which 623.72 million (51.54 per cent) were male, and 586.46 million (48.46 per cent) were female. PTI ABS NSD NSD
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