CHENNAI: As the country’s largest enumeration exercise, the Census 2027, is expected to commence with the gazette notification issued on June 16 after a delay of five years, the Directorate of Census Operations (DCO) in Tamil Nadu has swung into action, making arrangements for a pre-test. The DCO is expected to engage 1.5 lakh enumerators to carry out the enumeration in TN.
In an interaction with TNIE, M Sundaresh Babu, Director of Census Operations (and Director of Citizen Registration) for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, said the state government has been asked to freeze any changes to administrative boundaries by December 31.
Stating that further details are awaited from the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, regarding enumeration of castes, which the country will be doing for the first time since Independence as part of Census 2027, Babu emphasised that the state government would also be consulted in the process.
The pre-test process, which serves as a trial for testing and refining all aspects of the Census operations, is expected to commence in September or latest by October; it will be carried out in select places in rural, urban, and remote areas.
Highlighting that the upcoming Census will be the country’s first digital Census, he said the pre-test, a crucial process before every Census, will focus on various practical issues that may crop up including those faced in remote areas with less connectivity to check whether mobile devices work properly.
“For the first time, the enumerators will collect information on their mobile phones using the application developed by the Registrar General of India unlike manual writing down of information done earlier,” Babu said.
He said the mobile application has been designed in such a way that it would be compatible with any type of smartphones the enumerators use.
The union government has said the Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases, along with the enumeration of castes. “The first is house-listing operations, which involves creating a comprehensive list of all buildings, structures, and housing units across the state. The second phase is population enumeration – that is headcount of the population. This will take place in February 2027,” he added.
The state government’s cooperation is paramount as the majority of the enumerators will be schoolteachers, and the supervisors will be from the revenue department. “We are planning to engage 1.5 lakh enumerators across the state,” he said.
Each enumerator, on average, is expected to cover 650 to 800 people which may change when the finer details of the operation are worked out, Babu added. He said the training for enumerators is planned in December or early 2026.
Stressing on the importance of freezing the administrative boundaries of revenue villages, taluks, districts so that no confusions creep in during the enumeration exercise, he said June 30 was given as the deadline for the state government to freeze the boundaries until the Census exercise is over. “It has now been extended till December 31 (2025),” he said, adding that exercises like creating new taluks, merging villages with urban local bodies or other such measures cannot be done after the cut-off date until the enumeration is over.
Mapping Tamil Nadu
16th Census in country since 1872 & eighth since Independence
First digital Census & first since Independence to enumerate castes
2011 included 29 questions compared to 23 in 2001, as country tried to capture migration related information
2027 is expected to have more questions
Chief secretary will head a coordination committee
Nodal officer will be appointed for coordination
District collector will serve as principal census officer (Commissioner in case of municipal corporation)