The 15-day self-enumeration period of the Houselisting and Housing Census, which forms phase I of Census 2027, will begin in Kerala on Tuesday (June 16, 2026).

The public can directly submit their household particulars through the portal https://se.census.gov.in/ till June 30. The portal can be accessed from 6 a.m. on Tuesday. The data thus submitted will be verified by enumerators during their field visits for data collection from July 1 to 30.

Respondents are required to provide information based on their current place of residence, K. Biju, Secretary, the General Administration department, and State Nodal Officer of the Census exercise, said. Students and employees living elsewhere for education or work should provide details of their current place of residence. Likewise, tenants should provide details of the rented house in which they presently reside. The portal can be accessed only from Indian territory.

Data protection and privacy are ensured in the exercise, Census officials said. Only the aggregate data will be published. Individual information will remain confidential, T. Mithra, Director of Census Operations - Kerala and Chief Principal Census Officer, said.

Unique ID

Where the self-enumeration has been completed, the respondents will be required to share the unique 11-digit ‘SE ID’ that gets generated during the self-enumeration, with the enumerator during the house-to-house visit.

In all, 33 questions have been notified for the first phase. The Kerala government had issued a notification on May 7 seeking public co-operation in furnishing “accurate, unambiguous” information in response to the questions, Census officials said.

In Kerala, there are 682 Census towns and 758 villages. There are approximately 58,619 houselisting blocks in the State.

Approximately 61,282 enumerators and 10,189 supervisors, mostly teachers and other government employees, have been identified from across Kerala to visit the houselisting blocks demarcated using a web-mapping application and allotted to them for data collection.

The enumerators will use a mobile app for data collection and the entire operation will be managed through a dedicated web portal, the Census Management and Monitoring System.

Two phases

India’s first digital Census, Census 2027 is being conducted in two phases. Phase I consists of the House Listing and Housing Census (HLO), which will take place in Kerala from July 1 to 30. Phase II - Population Enumeration will be held in February, 2027.

The Directorate of Census Operations, Kerala, is responsible for coordinating the Census activities with the State government, with the director being the Chief Principal Census Officer. The State nodal department is the General Administration department (GAD) with its secretary as the State Nodal Officer for Census.

At the district level, District Collectors are the Principal Census Officers (PCO) responsible for the Census operations.

A toll-free helpline, 1855, will be operational soon.