Census enumerators have been given identity cards with QR codes to enable residents to verify authenticity, said Lalit Jain, Director of Census Operations (DCO), Haryana, amid resistance from several high-end gated societies to grant access to enumerators.

In an interview with The Hindu on Friday (May 8, 2026), Mr. Jain said, “We understand that there may be some apprehension in their [residents] minds that maybe people [enumerators] are not genuine. Now, we have introduced the scan code enabled identity cards. Any person who has any doubt about the authenticity of our enumerator can scan the code on the ID card for verification.”

On December 2, 2025, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs informed Parliament that according to Section 8(2) of the Census Act, 1948, every resident is “legally bound” to answer Census-related questions to the best of her/his knowledge or belief.

“We have requested the presidents of the RWA (residents welfare associations) to allow us to enter, because Census ultimately is a nation building exercise, and it is to the benefit of everybody that we enumerate and we get to know the basic data about our population,” Mr. Jain said.

He added that “stranger anxiety” and apprehension about sharing personal data could be the reasons behind the resistance.

“Data we are asking for is not something which is very, very personal. We are just asking people whether they have drinking water supply in their homes, whether they have toilets. And secondly, they need not worry because whatever data they give is secure with us. We will not share this data with anybody. Moreover, this data will not lead to any documentation, and it cannot be used against you,” he said.

Self-enumeration

The DCO added that in Haryana, over 3 lakh households have been covered through the self-enumeration portal which was open for 15 days.

He said the self-enumeration option would be available for the second phase of the Census too, which is the Population Enumeration to be done in February 2027.

The self-enumeration step will be followed by a visit by enumerators who can check the reference number generated through the portal and the questions will not be asked again.

When asked if people could face an FIR for not answering the questions, Mr. Jain said, “Legally under the Census Act, a resident is supposed to give information, but we have never seen a case whereby we have registered a FIR against a resident. Generally, what we do is we get hold of the local body numbers — that of the village head or the ward members and the presidents of the municipal council to convince the residents about the exercise.”

The first phase of the Census started on April 1 and will conclude by September 30 across the country. Around 30 lakh enumerators will be engaged in the exercise.

This is the first digital Census and the first to enumerate caste and allow self-enumeration. The last Population Census was conducted in 2011.

About 92 lakh households have successfully completed self-enumeration across 23 States and Union Territories through the official portal so far. Caste will be enumerated in the second phase. In Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, both phases are to be completed by September 30.

Door-to-door visits by the enumerators are currently under way in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Delhi (NDMC and Delhi Cantonment Board areas), Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Odisha, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.