Around 3,000 enumerators to cover households
PANAJI
The long-delayed national population count will formally begin in Goa, with the State government announcing Phase I of Census 2027. The houselisting and housing enumeration will be carried out from April 16 to May 15, 2026. Around 3,000 enumerators will be deployed across the State during the 30-day exercise.
In a notification issued on Thursday, Director of Planning Ajay Saxena stated, “The Government of Goa hereby declares that the House Listing Operations of the Census of India 2027 shall take place for a period of 30 days from April 16 to May 15, 2026.”
The notification also stated that residents will have the option of self-enumeration, which will be conducted over a 15-day period from April 1 to April 15, 2026.
This announcement follows a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on January 7, which fixed the nationwide houselisting phase of Census 2027 between April 1 and September 30 across all States and Union Territories.
Sources in the Directorate of Census Operations told The Goan that around 3,000 enumerators will be engaged for the Goa exercise. “We had written to the State government seeking the deployment of 3,000 enumerators,” a source said.
As per the notification, Census officers are authorised to collect information from all persons within their assigned areas for houselisting and housing enumeration. The government has finalised 33 questions for Phase I.
The first phase will gather detailed information on houses and households, including building and census house numbers, the main material used for floors, walls and roofs, the use and condition of the house, ownership status, number of rooms and the number of usual residents.
Details of the head of the household, such as name and sex, social category including Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, and the number of married couples in the household will also be recorded.
Information on access to basic amenities will be collected, including drinking water, electricity, toilets, wastewater outlets, bathing and kitchen facilities, and cooking fuel such as LPG and PNG connections.
The survey will also record access to modern amenities such as radio, television, Internet connectivity, computers, laptops, mobile phones and smartphones, along with vehicle ownership and the main cereal consumed by the household. A mobile number will be collected only for census-related communication.
The houselisting phase will be followed by population enumeration in April 2027. This is expected to be India’s first fully digital Census, with data collected through mobile applications on Android and iOS platforms.
