Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday announced a month-long house listing exercise beginning mid-April 2026 as part of the preparations for Census 2027, according to a notification issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department.
The house listing operation will be conducted across the state from April 16 to May 15, 2026. Prior to this, residents will have the option of self-enumeration for a period of 15 days, from April 1 to April 15, 2026, the notification said.
Sources in the Census Directorate said that under the self-enumeration provision, residents who wish to submit their household details independently can do so online during the specified period, just before the commencement of door-to-door house listing.
The census will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will focus on house listing operations, while the second phase—scheduled to begin in February 2027—will involve a door-to-door population census, collecting individual demographic and socio-economic details.
Nearly one lakh enumerators will be engaged for the exercise in Odisha. Each enumerator is expected to cover approximately 200 households, while one supervisor will oversee the work of six enumerators. Officials said enumerators will receive an incentive of ₹25,000 for their services.
Training programmes for enumerators have been underway for the past six months, and pre-test surveys have already been conducted in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack to assess preparedness and operational efficiency.
Officials added that nearly 90 per cent of census data is expected to be collected through digital mode, marking a significant shift towards technology-driven enumeration in the upcoming census exercise.
