Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Jammu and Kashmir has successfully completed the first phase of Census 2027, with the House Listing Operations concluding across the Union Territory within the stipulated timeframe, a milestone that officials described as a reflection of strong coordination between field functionaries and district administrations. The achievement was reviewed during the fifth meeting of the Union Territory Level Census Coordination Committee, chaired by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, who commended the Directorate of Census Operations, enumerators, supervisors and charge officers for the timely completion of the exercise.
The meeting, attended by the Director of Census Operations for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh along with Commissioner Secretaries of the Housing and Urban Development and Education departments and senior officers from the Planning department, reviewed the entire scope of the operation. Chief Principal Census Officer and Director of Census Operations Amit Sharma presented a comprehensive account of the field exercise, informing the committee that the month long House Listing Operations were carried out from June 1 to June 30 with complete digital data collection, making the exercise entirely paperless.
According to details shared during the meeting, 24,071 House Listing Blocks were created covering 295 Census Charges across the Union Territory. The operation was preceded by an extensive capacity building drive in which 30 Master Trainers, 614 Field Trainers and 29,269 Enumerators and Supervisors, including reserve staff, were trained through 813 structured batches. More than 27,000 digital Census kits were distributed to support the field work, with additional reserve equipment kept ready to address any contingencies that arose during the exercise.
Special emphasis was placed on ensuring comprehensive coverage of migratory populations and communities in difficult to reach areas, so that no household was left outside the ambit of the Census. The Chief Secretary also directed district administrations to expedite the disbursement of honorarium to enumerators, supervisors and other field functionaries within the month, in line with approved government norms.
Looking ahead, the Directorate outlined preparations for the creation of District Census Handbooks, which will contain detailed village and town level demographic, socio-economic and infrastructural data, with field work expected to conclude by October 2026. The committee also reviewed preparations for Population Enumeration in snow bound and inaccessible areas, scheduled for September 2026, noting that the number of notified snow bound areas has risen sharply for this Census cycle, with 1,103 villages and three municipal areas across sixteen districts identified for advance enumeration, compared to 546 villages during Census 2011.
