In a significant step towards India’s first fully digital Census, Odisha will launch the initial phase of house listing and housing census from April 16 in all 30 districts of the state.
Director of Census Operations (DCO) and Director of Citizen Registration (DCR) Nikhil Pavan Kalyan, IAS, announced this during a press conference at the Census Directorate office in Unit-9, Bhubaneswar.
The exercise is being organised in coordination with the Census Directorate under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the Odisha government’s Revenue and Disaster Management Department.
Trained enumerators and supervisors will conduct door-to-door visits to collect data from April 16 to May 15. Ahead of this, a Self-Enumeration (SE) Portal will be operational from April 1 to April 15, enabling citizens to submit their information online. The self-provided data will subsequently be verified by enumerators.
A robust training cascade has been completed for the massive operation. As many as 67 Master Trainers were trained at the Gopabandhu Academy of Administration. These trainers have prepared 1,552 Field Trainers, who are currently training 1,00,875 enumerators and 17,282 supervisors across the state. Primary school teachers have been appointed as enumerators, while high school teachers will serve as supervisors. Data collection will be carried out using a mobile application.
This is the first time the Indian Census will be fully digital and include a provision for self-enumeration. The exercise will also utilise the CMMS Portal and create digital House Listing Blocks.
Internationally acclaimed sand artist Padma Shri Sudarsan Pattnaik has been appointed as the Brand Ambassador for promoting the census activities.
District Collectors and Municipal Corporation Commissioners will function as Principal Census Officers, while Additional District Magistrates will act as District Census Officers. Tahsildars and Executive Officers of urban local bodies will serve as Charge Officers. The Revenue and Disaster Management Department is the nodal department for the state.
The entire first phase is scheduled to conclude by May 15.
