First Phase of Digital Census to Begin in Odisha from April 16

Bhubaneswar: The first phase of the Census—House Listing Operations (HLO)—will commence across all 30 districts of Odisha from April 16, marking a significant step towards conducting India’s first fully digital census.

The exercise is being carried out by the Directorate of Census Operations, Odisha under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, in coordination with the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Government of Odisha.

As part of the process, Enumerators and Supervisors will visit households from April 16 to May 15, 2026 to collect data using a mobile application. Prior to this, citizens will have the option of self-enumeration from April 1 to April 15 through an online portal, allowing them to submit their details digitally.

To ensure smooth implementation, extensive training has been conducted across the state. A total of 67 Master Trainers were trained at the Gopabandhu Administrative Academy, who in turn trained 1,552 Field Trainers. These trainers are currently imparting training to over 1 lakh Enumerators and more than 17,000 Supervisors across urban and rural areas.

The census operation will cover all administrative units, including 91 Notified Area Councils, 48 Municipalities, five Municipal Corporations and two Industrial Towns, ensuring comprehensive data collection across Odisha.

In a bid to enhance public awareness, noted sand artist and Padma Shri awardee Sudarshan Pattnaik has been roped in as the Brand Ambassador for the programme.

Officials said the census will be conducted using digital platforms, including the Self-Enumeration Portal (SE) and the CMMS Portal, which will also be used for creating House Listing Blocks. The data submitted through self-enumeration will be verified by enumerators during field visits.

District Collectors and Municipal Commissioners have been designated as Principal Census Officers, while Additional District Collectors will function as District Census Officers. At the field level, Executive Officers of urban local bodies and Tahsildars will serve as Charge Officers.

School teachers will play a key role in the exercise, with primary school teachers acting as Enumerators and high school teachers as Supervisors.

Officials described the initiative as a major milestone, noting that this will be the first digital census in India, introducing self-enumeration for the first time and aiming to make the process more efficient, transparent and citizen-friendly.