JAMMU, Oct. 6
Census authorities have completed the population enumeration of Army, Central Armed Police Forces and other Central forces stationed in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh under special security arrangements, using paper schedules instead of online data collection.
The exercise covered 125 designated “Special Charges” in Jammu and Kashmir and 47 in Ladakh, Director of Census Operations for the two Union Territories Amit Sharma said on Tuesday. Special Charges include military, paramilitary and other Central forces that require a separate enumeration mechanism because of their operational and security requirements.
Unlike the general population, these establishments do not undergo the House Listing Operation. Only population enumeration is conducted for them.
The most significant departure from the wider Census 2027 exercise, which is being conducted digitally, was the use of paper schedules for personnel serving in these sensitive establishments.
Sharma said information concerning military and security personnel could not necessarily be collected over the internet because of security concerns. Census authorities therefore prepared and distributed paper schedules through which the required information was recorded.
The completed records will now undergo a separate digitisation process before being incorporated into the main Census database.
The arrangements were developed in coordination with the forces concerned, with particular attention given to the Army because of its extensive deployment across Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Sharma said regular meetings with the Ministry of Defence helped streamline the process.
The Army is directly providing the required information from its central database after incorporating the fields needed for Census 2027. The arrangement has simplified data collection from personnel deployed across numerous battalions, companies and locations.
The approach is particularly relevant in J&K and Ladakh, where Army formations and Central forces are spread across a vast geographical area, including remote and high-altitude locations.
Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan reviewed the arrangements during his visit to Ladakh in September.
He held a separate meeting with representatives responsible for the Special Charges and reviewed their preparedness for the enumeration. According to Sharma, the Registrar General expressed satisfaction with the arrangements after interacting with the personnel concerned.
National Census trainers also remained directly involved in supervising and coordinating the exercise until its final stages.
Sharma said that while enumeration of Special Charges could appear relatively straightforward, collecting information from military and security establishments through paper schedules required detailed coordination.
Queries and doubts that emerged during the exercise were addressed in real time, allowing the enumeration of all 172 Special Charges across J&K and Ladakh to be completed.
The exercise covered the Army, Air Force, paramilitary organisations and other Central forces.
With the physical enumeration complete, attention will now shift to converting the information collected on paper into a format that can be incorporated into India’s Census database.
The establishments concerned will digitise their own information and return it to Census authorities within a prescribed timeframe.
Sharma said paper records could not be directly incorporated into the Census database, making the digitisation stage necessary.
Once converted, the data will be transmitted through a secure and encrypted system using predetermined formats. The Census information technology division is working on the process required to integrate the records into the main database.
The special arrangements illustrate how Census 2027 is adapting its data-collection system for security-sensitive organisations even as the wider exercise moves towards digital enumeration.
For the general population, Census 2027 is India’s first fully digital Census. Military and Central security establishments in J&K and Ladakh, however, require different safeguards because of the sensitivity of information relating to personnel and deployments.
Sharma thanked officers and personnel associated with the Special Charges, particularly members of the paramilitary forces, for cooperating with Census authorities and completing the exercise within the required period.
He also addressed confusion between Census 2027 and the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, of electoral rolls.
The two exercises are unrelated.
SIR is conducted by the Election Commission of India as part of the electoral-roll process, while the Census is a decennial population exercise conducted under the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Earth News
The completion of the Special Charges exercise follows the enumeration of snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which was conducted ahead of winter because many settlements become difficult to access during the normal enumeration period.
Together, the exercises clear two of the more complex components of Census 2027 in the two Himalayan Union Territories before the remaining population is covered under the wider enumeration programme.
