New Delhi, Dec 8: The Registrar General of India (RGI) has directed all the states and Union territories to complete the appointment of census functionaries — the officers responsible for the massive data collection exercise — by January 15, 2026, according to a latest circular.
The enumerators and supervisors are the primary census functionaries responsible for data collection during the exercise, the circular said.
“An Enumerator is to be assigned the work of about 700-800 population and one Supervisor is to be engaged for every six Enumerators. Besides, there shall be 10 per cent reserve Enumerators and Supervisors for any contingencies,” it said.
The RGI said according to Rule 3 of the Census Rules-1990, teachers, clerks or any official of a state government, local authority etc. can be appointed as an enumerator, while a supervisor will be an officer generally of a rank higher than that of the enumerator.
In addition, the states will also appoint census officers. In the districts, the district collectors, district magistrates or any nominated officers are designated as principal census officers, who will be responsible for the census operations in their jurisdiction.
Similarly, in a division, wherever it exists, the divisional commissioner will act as the divisional census officer, while in a municipal corporation, the municipal commissioner and the administrative head of the civic body would function as the principal census officer or additional principal census officer or charge officer, as the case may be.
During the upcoming census, about 30 lakh field functionaries will be deployed to complete the task of taking the population count across the country within a fixed time frame.
The RGI has developed a web portal — Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) for Census 2027 — to manage and monitor all activities like the appointment of enumerators and supervisors, assigning the enumeration blocks and supervisory circles to them and real-time progress of the field work.
“With all these new initiatives for Census 2027, it becomes all the more important to initiate the appointment of Census officers well in advance and complete all other formalities like registration of Census functionaries on CMMS portal with correct and complete details,” the circular said.
It added that though the appointment of enumerators and supervisors, who will be undertaking the actual data collection, will be done later, they need to be identified in advance and registered on the CMMS portal. (PTI)
