Under new Census rules, private school teachers can be enlisted as enumerators

States and Union territories can select teachers from ‘aided and unaided’ private schools as enumerators for Census 2027, under the Census Rules, 1990 amended by the Center. The amendment is in the wake of stays granted by several High Courts to orders seeking the deployment of private school staff for census-related work.

Census Rule 1990 has been amended by the centre for allowing states and union territories to select teachers from ‘aided and unaided’ private schools as enumerators for Census 2027. The state governments and the Union territory administrations can appoint "teachers, clerks, or any official or any person" as census officers, said Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan in a gazette notification issued by the Registrar General of India (RGI).

The move expands the categories of staff eligible for census work as legal challenges continue to the deployment of private school teachers. The 2027 Census will be conducted in two phases, house-listing and housing census; and population enumeration.

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Census rules amended

Teachers from government, local authority, ‘aided and unaided’ private schools, as well as societies and trusts can be appointed as enumerators under this new rule. The notification also includes clerks and officials working with central and state governments, public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, local authorities, societies and trusts.

The notification states that ‘any person’ considered suitable by the state government or Union territory administration can also be appointed as a census officer to perform enumerator duties.

The amendment follows legal challenges to orders requiring private school staff to participate in census work. In Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed two state government communications seeking details of teachers available for census duty after a petition by the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference.

Under the Census Act, 1948, the government lacked statutory authority to requisition teaching staff from private unaided schools, the petitioner mentioned. It also cited Section 4A of the Act, which provides for making officers and staff of local authorities available for census-related work. The matter has been listed for April 29, 2027.

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High Court's stayed orders

The Allahabad High Court had also stayed the orders issued by the District Inspector of Schools, Gautam Budh Nagar, seeking lists of teaching and non-teaching staff from aided and unaided institutions for census duties.

The court held that ‘teaching and non-teaching staff of private institutions whether aided or unaided cannot be said to be included within the purview of local authorities’

In another case, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court heard a petition filed by the teachers of Center Point School challenging their appointment as enumerators and supervisors for census work by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. The petition claimed the deputy commissioner threatened the school principal with criminal action for non-compliance.

In May, the bench had held that “Thus, consistent view of the Apex Court as well as various High Courts and this Court is that the teachers or non-teaching staff of aided or unaided schools cannot be deputed for the work of Election as well as for the work of census".

The change is prior to the next decennial exercise, which was scheduled for 2021 but delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Cabinet approves Rs 11,718 crore for Census 2027

From December 1, 2026 to January 4, 2027, the census will take place in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and in Uttarakhand’s some areas, because the assembly elections are yet to be held in these states.

From December 1, 2026 to January 4, 2027 the census will be conducted in the Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Goa, as the assembly elections are yet to be held in these three states. The RGI has also stopped house-listing operations in Manipur. The exercise was held in snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand and Ladakh from September 1 to 30 2026.

For the rest of the country, the house-listing will start from February 2027 and it will collect various data like socio-cultural, economic and demographic, including fertility information.

Source: Press Trust of India (PTI)