ACCESS TO Internet, smartphone, packaged/bottled water and the main cereal consumed in the household – These are the four new questions introduced in the Census to be conducted after a gap of 15 years that will commence with the self-enumeration of House Listing Operations (HLO) set to begin on May 17 in Gujarat.
For the first time, citizens will be able to fill in the details through self-enumeration with the help of an online portal introduced in the Census that will be conducted digitally this time in 16 languages, including Gujarati, on Android and iOS apps to be held in the state from May 17 till 31, Director of Census Sujal J Mayatra said on Tuesday.
“Every individual is legally bound to provide true and complete information and there is also a provision of penalty-fine or to register an FIR for refusal to provide information,” added Mayatra.
Following the household listing Census, the second phase involving population enumeration will be conducted in February next year. The Census was earlier scheduled for April (last month) but was postponed due to the local body elections.
The self-enumeration will be followed by House Listing Operations (HLO) via door-to-door data collection will be done by the appointed Census functionaries from June 1 till June 30, 2026, in Gujarat state through House Listing Mobile Application (HLO App) designed especially for Census field enumeration.
“Among the set of 33 questions to be asked during the House Listing Operations (HLO), access to Internet, smartphone, bottled water and the main cereal consumed in the household are the four new questions which were not there in 2011 census,” reiterated Mayatra.
The set of 33 questions include housing status, family details, source of drinking water, toilet facilities and other assets.
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The Census includes 1,10,598 Houselisting Blocks (HLBs), 1,09,038 enumerators and 18,254 supervisors. Trading is being provided to enumerators, supervisors and other census officers in three phases. Assuring about data security, the Commissioner said that all personal information collected under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990 will be kept confidential and cannot be used for legal or tax purposes.
More than 1.10 lakh personnel, including supervisors and enumerators, would be involved in the exercise across Gujarat’s 17 municipal corporations, 34 districts, 268 talukas, 18,117 villages, 197 towns and 17 municipal corporations, the official said.
Each enumerator has 30 days for an estimated 700 to 800 individuals adding that the timeline was adequate for completion of the exercise.
Elaborating on the phases, Mayatra said, “For the first time, citizens will have the opportunity to participate in the Census through the Self Enumeration portal (https://se.census.gov.inhttps://se.census.gov.in) introduced by the Government of India. Under this initiative, people can voluntarily submit their details about their houses, amenities available in their household, assets etc online in a simple, secure and convenient manner. This citizen-centric initiative aims to promote digital participation, accuracy and ease in Census operations.”
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Mayatra also appealed to all citizens to “actively participate and provide accurate information”. It was also emphasised that all information collected during Census operations remains strictly confidential under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948.
The Self enumeration ID received will have to be given during the visit of the enumerator. After confirming the self-enumeration data, the enumerator will include it in the original database. This process will make data collection faster and reduce the burden of manual work, he added.
The 33 questions
The 33 questions divided into sub-questions include type of floor (mud, wood.bamboo, bent brick, stone, cement, mosaic/floor tiles), wall (grass/thatch/bamboo, plastic/polythene, mud, unburnt brick, wood), roof (grass/thatch/bamboo/wood/mud, plastic/polythene, handmade tiles, machine made tiles, burnt brick, stone, slate, concrete, total number of persons normally residing in this household, SC or ST or other, ownership status of the house, main source of drinking water (tap water from treated source, tap water from untreated source, well, hand pump, tubewell/borewell, spring, river/canal, tank/pond/lake, packaged/bottled water), main source of lighting, access and type of latrine, waste water outlet, bathing facility available within the premises, availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection, main fuel used for cooking (firewood, crop residue, cowling cake, coal/lignite/charcoal, kerosene, LPG/PNG, electricity, bio-gas, solar) , radio/transistor, television, access to internet, laptop/computer, telephone and mobile phone/smartphone, bicycle and scooter/motorcycle/moped, car/jeep/van, main cereal consumed in the household.
