THEBUSINESSBYTES
BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR,
JANUARY 20, 2026
Setting the stage for Census
2027, the Odisha government on Tuesday announced a comprehensive month-long
house listing exercise to be conducted across the state from April 16 to May
15, 2026, as per a notification issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management
Department. The initiative marks a crucial preparatory step for the decennial
census and reflects a strong push towards technology-driven data collection.
Ahead of the door-to-door
operation, residents will be given the option of self-enumeration for a 15-day
window from April 1 to April 15, 2026. Under this provision, households willing
to submit their details independently can do so online, enabling smoother
execution once field-level enumeration begins.
Sources in the Census
Directorate said the upcoming census will be carried out in two distinct
phases. The first phase will focus exclusively on house listing operations,
while the second phase, scheduled to commence in February 2027, will involve a
detailed door-to-door population census capturing individual demographic and
socio-economic information.
The scale of the operation is
reflected in the deployment of nearly one lakh enumerators across Odisha. Each
enumerator will be responsible for covering around 200 households, with
supervisors overseeing teams of six enumerators each. Officials said
enumerators will receive an incentive of ₹25,000 for their services,
underscoring the importance of accurate and timely data collection.
Preparations have been in motion
for months, with training programmes for enumerators underway for the past six
months. Pre-test surveys have already been conducted in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack
to evaluate operational readiness and streamline processes ahead of the
statewide rollout.
Officials further noted that
nearly 90 per cent of the census data is expected to be collected through
digital means, signalling a major shift towards modern, efficient and
technology-enabled enumeration as Odisha prepares for one of its most extensive
administrative exercises ahead of Census 2027.
