Collectors briefed on Census ahead of August rollout

CHENNAI: The Directorate of Census Operations has conducted a sensitisation workshop for all district Collectors to ensure the smooth conduct of the forthcoming household Census across the State.

The workshop was held on the sidelines of the two-day conference of district Collectors and senior police officers at the Secretariat, enabling Census officials to brief the district administrations ahead of the statewide enumeration exercise.

"Since all district Collectors were present in Chennai for the State government's conference, the Directorate of Census Operations utilised the opportunity to conduct a workshop on the arrangements required for the door-to-door household Census scheduled to commence in August," a senior official said.

During the session, Census officials highlighted the importance of the exercise and briefed collectors on their role in coordinating field-level arrangements, training schedules and logistical support required for the enumeration.

Officials also explained the ongoing training programme for 2,700 field-level trainers, who will subsequently train nearly 1.40 lakh enumerators, comprising school teachers and government staff, who will undertake the month-long household enumeration across the State.

Each enumerator will be assigned around 200 households during the survey. Based on this, the Census Directorate expects to cover nearly 2.80 crore households across Tamil Nadu.

According to officials, a self-enumeration phase will be conducted from July 17 to 31, enabling residents to submit their details online before the door-to-door survey begins.

The household enumeration, scheduled to commence in August, will collect information on the number of family members, housing conditions, availability of basic amenities, ownership of vehicles and household assets, among other socio-economic details. The caste survey part of the census is expected to commence next year.