Odisha to start first phase of Census from April, to engage 1 lakh enumerators

Bhubaneswar: Odisha is all set to begin the first phase of the census exercise from April by engaging about one lakh enumerators, and the final population count will start in February 2027, a senior official said.

Director of Census Operations in Odisha, Nikhil Pavan Kalyan, said this after attending the State-level Census Co-ordination Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Development Commissioner, DK Singh on Wednesday.

"The first phase, encompassing house listing and housing census operations, is scheduled to take place over one-month duration between April and May 2026.

"This foundational step will be followed by the primary population enumeration phase, which is mandated to occur from February 9 to February 28, 2027. A brief revision round will conclude the process in early March 2027 to ensure no resident is excluded from this critical count," an official said.

Stating that preparations are made for the mammoth exercise in which at least one lakh enumerators and 15,000 supervisors will be involved, Kalyan said one such enumerator will cover about 200 houses, approximately housing 800 people.

The training for enumerators and others to be engaged in the census exercise to be held in January, February and March, he said, adding that each enumerator will receive a financial incentive of Rs 25,000 for their services.

Official sources said that the pre-test surveys have already been completed in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. As boundaries of newly declared NACs (notified area councils) and municipalities have also been finalised, there are no such hurdles for smooth census activities.

Kalyan said the census will largely be conducted online, with around 90 per cent of data collection expected through digital mode. The interested people can also provide their information on their own by registering on the official website using an OTP-based mobile verification system. One mobile number can be used only once, and features like screenshots from the app will be disabled to maintain data security, he said.