With less than a week left for the completion of the first phase of Census 2027 in New Delhi district, enumerators have surveyed nearly 60,000 households through the House Listing Operations (HLO) mobile application and mapped around 80% of Census houses ahead of the May 15 deadline, according to official progress data accessed by The Hindu.

The house listing and housing census exercise began on April 16 across areas under the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Delhi Cantonment jurisdictions. It involves physical mapping and geotagging of structures, followed by a door-to-door survey conducted by enumerators.

The district has been divided into 586 House Listing Blocks (HLBs), each assigned to an enumerator and estimated to cover around 180-200 houses and a population of 600-800 people. Enumerators collect responses to 33 questions through the HLO. These include details related to construction material used in houses, sources of drinking water, cooking fuel, Internet connectivity, household composition and household amenities, among others.

The information is then verified by supervisors before being uploaded to the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal. While enumeration data for nearly 60,000 households has been uploaded through the HLO application, supervisor verification has been completed for 55,202 households.

More houses identified

“When the exercise started, 571 HLBs were identified. However, as the door-to-door exercise progressed, more houses were identified and marked,” said Kapil Chaudhary, New Delhi district Census officer.

According to the May 8 progress report, 96,550 census houses have been marked by enumerators in the New Delhi district. Of these, around 77,000 houses, nearly 80%, have been mapped so far. Delhi Cantonment recorded the highest proportion of pending mapping work with over 70% of mapping still to be completed.

“For locked houses, enumerators make three visits before marking them absent, as per the rules,” Mr. Chaudhary said. He said the overall exercise remains on track and is expected to be completed within the deadline.