Odisha Digital Census: Self-Enumeration Ends Today

Odisha’s digital census has seen a steady start. In the first two weeks alone, more than 1.76 lakh families submitted their details online. With the self-enumeration window open till April 15 (Today), many households are opting to use the portal rather than wait for an enumerator.
The next phase begins on April 16 (Tomorrow), when field verification starts. Enumerators will visit homes to check the information that has already been entered. The process is straightforward in design, but ensuring that online entries match what is confirmed on the ground will need attention. Variations in submitted data, if any, will be reconciled during the verification phase.

District Collectors and Municipal Corporation Commissioners will take charge as Principal Census Officers, while Additional District Collectors will handle the role of District Census Officers. Tehsildars and Executive Officers from statutory towns will step in as Charge Officers. The Revenue and Disaster Management Department is leading the whole process. Primary school teachers from the School and Mass Education Department will go door-to-door as enumerators, and high school teachers will act as supervisors. All these officials will use a mobile app to gather household data during the survey.

For enumerators, the process involves both collection and verification. Along with gathering information where required, they will also review existing entries, confirm details with households, and update records where necessary. The use of digital tools, including the CMMS Portal for creating house listing blocks, represents a major technological leap for the national Census exercise as said by Director of Census Operations, Odisha, Nikhil Pavan Kalyan.

Given the scale and the time available, this will require coordination across areas. In some places, especially dense urban localities or remote settlements, even locating households can take time.
The combined approach—digital submission followed by field verification—is expected to improve data quality while speeding up the initial stage of data collection.
At the same time, the exercise will offer a sense of how such digital systems work at scale. It will indicate how widely people participate, how easy the process is to use, and how reliable self-reported information turns out to be in practice.
For now, the focus will remain on how well the two parts—online submission and field verification—come together. A clearer picture will emerge once the final census data is released in 2027–28.

If you have questions or need help with the Census or House Listing Operations, you can call the Census Directorate, Odisha, on the toll-free number 1855.