J&K Gears Up For First Digital Census

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) ** Srinagar-** Jammu and Kashmir has begun preparations for the country’s first fully digital Census, with Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Monday chairing a high level sensitisation session to review the arrangements for Census 2027.

The meeting was held in the presence of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, and attended by administrative secretaries, senior officers of the Union Territory administration, divisional and district officials, and representatives of various government departments.

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Addressing the officers, Dulloo stressed the need for coordinated and proactive preparations to ensure the smooth conduct of the census operations. He said the meeting had clearly outlined the roles and responsibilities of different departments and urged all stakeholders and field functionaries to extend full support to the census machinery so that the exercise is conducted in a systematic, transparent and efficient manner.

He also highlighted the importance of public awareness and outreach, noting that citizens must be encouraged to actively participate in the process and provide accurate information. A successful census, he said, depends on the cooperation of both the administration and the public.

Speaking on the occasion, Narayan expressed satisfaction over the level of preparedness in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the sensitisation carried out for officers at different levels of the administration had instilled confidence that the census operations in both phases would be completed diligently and within the prescribed timelines.

Highlighting the significance of the census exercise, he said the data collected plays a crucial role in determining the share of states and Union Territories in Finance Commission allocations and government development programmes. Census data, he said, forms the foundational dataset guiding policy planning and development initiatives for the next decade.

During the session, Director Census Operations for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Amit Sharma, delivered a detailed presentation outlining the strategy, methodology, administrative arrangements and digital systems planned for conducting the census in the Union Territory.

He informed that the Census of India 2027 will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will consist of the House Listing Operations followed by the second phase of Population Enumeration.

To manage the scale of the exercise, Sharma said a structured hierarchy of trainers has been planned. A core team of national and master trainers will train 614 field trainers, who will further train around 30,871 enumerators and supervisors across the Union Territory.

The field functionaries will undergo specialised three day training programmes between May 7 and May 25, 2026 to equip them with the necessary skills before the start of fieldwork.

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As per the operational plan, the first phase of houselisting and housing census will begin with a 15 day self enumeration window from May 17 to May 31, 2026, allowing citizens to submit their details digitally. This will be followed by 30 days of house to house enumeration during June 2026.

Considering the geographic and climatic conditions of Jammu and Kashmir, the second phase of population enumeration will begin in September 2026 for snow bound areas and in February 2027 for non snowbound regions.

Officials said the census will capture comprehensive information related to housing conditions, household amenities, assets, demographic characteristics, language, literacy, education, economic activity and migration patterns.

A key feature of the upcoming census will be digital data collection through a dedicated mobile application developed for census operations. The application will be available on both Android and iOS platforms and will support multiple regional languages including Hindi, English and Urdu.

The application will also work in offline mode, allowing enumerators to collect data in areas with limited internet connectivity, while internet access will be required only for device registration and uploading the collected data.

Read Also Govt Notifies Questions for First Phase of Census Beginning April 1 Census 2027: House Listing Operations In J&K From June 1

Officials said the census will cover 20 districts, 207 tehsils, 6,462 villages and 78 towns across the Union Territory. Only enumerators registered on the Census Management and Monitoring System will be authorised to collect and upload data, which will then be verified by supervisors to ensure accuracy and transparency.

The government has also sanctioned an honorarium of ₹25,000 each for enumerators and supervisors for the exercise, including ₹9,000 for the houselisting phase and ₹16,000 for the population enumeration phase.

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