Union government allows private school staff and trustees to work as Census enumerators

New Rules

The Union government has expanded the rules to appoint private school teachers and members of trusts, societies, and institutions as Census enumerators. An official notification on Friday by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India updated Rule 3 of the Census Rules, 1990. Earlier, only government school teachers, revenue officers, and other State government officials handled this work.

Legal Challenges

During the first phase of the Census, private teachers in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Haryana went to court after local governments ordered them to do enumeration duty. On Friday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed Haryana government communications that sought teacher details, giving relief to private unaided schools. Earlier in May, the Bombay High Court protected staff of over 500 private unaided and minority schools in Maharashtra by staying notices and appointment orders issued against them.

Workforce Demand

A senior government official stated that around 34 lakh enumerators are needed for the Population Enumeration. This second and penultimate phase includes a set of 40 questions, and officials say the job cannot finish on time using only government school teachers.

Schedule And Process

Door-to-door enumeration for the second phase will take place in four poll-bound states from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027. These states are Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Punjab. The rest of the country will conduct the exercise in February 2027. This Census is the first digital count and the first in independent India to record caste data beyond Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Officials noted that data collection happens through mobile apps on personal phones. Once completed, the data gets stored on a central server and is deleted from the enumerator's device, with officials assuring that adequate checks exist for data privacy. On August 14, authorities notified 40 questions for the second phase, adding 13 new fields such as digital literacy, bank accounts, passport numbers, and COVID-19 vaccination details.

Context

Conducting a nationwide population census is a massive administrative undertaking that requires millions of trained personnel to visit every household across the country. Expanding the pool of eligible enumerators helps governments manage staff shortages during large public exercises.