Tell parents about house-listing: That’s Census ‘homework’ for kids

Ghaziabad: With the self-enumeration window for Census 2027 opening on May 7, the district administration has turned the digital census into a district-wide public campaign, taking it from govt offices to classrooms, housing colonies and social media feeds.In perhaps its most direct push, schools have been asking students to tell their parents to complete the process online and treat the instruction as “homework”. That apart, officials are using elected representatives, RWAs and local influencers to make sure residents understand both the process and its urgency.The outreach is aimed at boosting participation in the house-listing phase of what is being billed as India’s first fully digital census. “Through the education department, both govt and private schools across the city have been told to ask students to encourage their parents to complete the self-enumeration online by May 21,” an official said.Additional district magistrate and district census officer Saurabh Bhatt said schools were the most effective route to households. “Teachers have been told to give this as homework to students — to urge their parents to complete self-enumeration digitally. The process has also been shared with teachers digitally so they can pass it on to parents. Our aim is maximum digital self-enumeration coverage for the house census,” he added.The administration is also bringing in local social media influencers and digital creators to post explainer videos and awareness messages, especially to reach urban households and younger residents.To support residents facing difficulties, the district census cell has started a helpline — 0120-2989055. Bhatt urged heads of households to complete the process online and keep the generated application number, or SEID, safely. “This ID must be shown to census enumerators during door-to-door verification,” he said.On the first day, district magistrate Ravindra Kumar Mandar and Noida DM Medha Roopam completed their own self-enumeration on the official portal and appealed to residents to submit accurate information within the deadline. In Ghaziabad, elected representatives, including Atul Garg, mayor Sunita Dayal, Nand Kishor Gurjar, Ajit Pal Tyagi and Manju Siwach, also took part publicly.Similar outreach began in Noida and Greater Noida through public representatives and RWAs. MLA Tejpal Nagar in Dadri and Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh completed self-enumeration publicly. “This is meant to build wider awareness so we get strong digital self-enumeration coverage across the district,” said Ashutosh Gupta, Dadri SDM.Officials said door-to-door verification will begin on May 22, after the self-enumeration window closes. The digital system, they said, is expected to cut paperwork, improve accuracy and speed up census operations.