First digital and paperless Census 2027 operations kick off as Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha completes self enumeration
SRINAGAR, May 17 — Marking a historic milestone in data collection, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha completed his self-enumeration today to officially launch the House listing and Housing Census operations across Jammu and Kashmir.
Highlighting the exercise as India’s very first fully digital and paperless Census, the Lieutenant Governor noted that the integration of mobile-based data collection and self-enumeration mechanisms will guarantee real-time monitoring, greater transparency, and unmatched accuracy.
Given the rapid urban expansion, shifting migration trends, and evolving developmental priorities of the Union Territory, this census will generate the granular datasets necessary for evidence-based governance and targeted welfare delivery.
The initial self-enumeration phase running from May 17 to May 31, 2026, focuses on housing conditions, household assets, basic amenities, and digital connectivity, while the subsequent population enumeration phase will capture extensive socio-economic indicators in early 2027, with special, accelerated timelines slated for September 2027 in snow-bound and remote regions.
To ensure the seamless execution of this massive exercise, extensive preparatory activities have been rolled out in coordination with the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
More than 27,000 field functionaries, including enumerators and supervisors, are being deployed across the region via the digital Census Management and Monitoring System, which handles everything from their registration to generating QR-coded identity cards.
These workers are undergoing a comprehensive multi-tier training framework focusing on mobile application usage, field protocols, and household engagement techniques.
Furthermore, to safeguard the integrity of the information provided by citizens through the secure online portal, a robust multi-layered digital security architecture featuring end-to-end encryption and role-based access controls has been established, certifying the data storage centers as critical information infrastructure.