New Delhi: The Union government has amended the Census Rules, 1990, allowing states and Union territories to appoint teachers from aided and unaided private institutions as enumerators during the ongoing census exercise, officials said on Friday.
In a gazette notification issued by Registrar General of India (RGI) Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, the government amended the 1990 rules, which stated that "teachers, clerks, or any official or any person" could be appointed as census officers by state governments and Union territory administrations to serve as enumerators.
Friday's notification specifies that the following categories of people can be appointed as census officers to perform enumerator duties:
(i) "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."
The changes come amid a petition filed by the 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 stayed the operation of two Haryana government communications seeking details of teachers available for census duty. The matter has now been listed for April 29, 2027.
The petitioner argued that the government lacked statutory authority under the Census Act, 1948, or the rules framed under it to requisition teaching staff from private unaided schools for appointment as enumerators or supervisors for census duty.
The plea stated that Section 4A of the Census Act specifically provides for making officers and staff of local authorities available for census-related work. It argued that private unaided schools and their employees do not fall within the definition or scope of a "local authority".
Census 2027 to be conducted in two phases
The 2027 Census, the eighth since Independence, is being conducted in two phases: house-listing and housing census, followed by population enumeration.
The decennial exercise, originally 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 largest headcount exercise to date.
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Population enumeration in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and areas outside the snow-bound regions of Uttarakhand will take place from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027, because of the Assembly elections scheduled in these states next year.
The Union government has deferred house-listing operations for Census 2027 in Manipur, according to a notification issued by the RGI 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.
In the rest of the country, the exercise is likely to begin next February. Data on demographic, socio-cultural and economic parameters, as well as individuals' migration and fertility characteristics, will be collected from each household.
