The Centre on Monday notified that the second phase of the ongoing Census — population enumeration — for Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand shall take place from September 1 to 30.In a gazette notification on Monday, Registrar General of India and Census Commis-sioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said that conduct of Census of the population shall be undertaken in these regions from September 1 to 30 this year, with a revisional round from October 1 to 5.
“For the conduct of the above Census, there shall be an option for self-enumeration from August 17 to 31 just before the start of house-to-house population enumeration,” it said. The notification said the reference date for the Census in Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand shall be 00.00 hours of October 1, 2026.
The second phase population enumeration for the rest of the country is likely to begin next year.
The Census, the eighth since Independence, is being conducted in two phases, the first stage, known as house listing and housing census (HLO), and the second stage, the population census.For the first time, caste details will also be collected during the population enumeration phase of the Census.
The decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 30 last year.
The first phase — house listing and housing census (HLO) — is going on till September 30.
Field visits for the housing listing and housing census began on April 16 in several states and union territories. Enumerators will list all structures, houses and households across the country to create a foundation for population enumeration.
During the housing listing operations, enumerators physically visit each house and building and ask 33 questions regarding basic facilities in homes, details of the head of the household such as name and sex, ownership status and other information.
The decadal exercise, scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 11,718 crore for conducting the Census, which will be the biggest headcount exercise.
