A house will be reported as ‘vacant’ in the Houselisting and Housing Census phase of Census 2027 only after repeated efforts are made to ascertain whether it is occupied or not, Census officials said.

Even as the house-to-house visits by Census enumerators are set to kick off in July, there is a strong perception that the number of ‘vacant’ houses in Kerala could see an increase from the last Census, given the migration trends in recent years. As per the 2011 Census, 11,89,144 houses were reported as lying vacant across Kerala.

Enumerators will conduct house-to-house visits from July 1 to July 30 as part of the Houselisting and Housing Census, which forms Phase 1 of Census 2027, which is also India’s first digital census. Houses are categorised in accordance with the uses to which they are put, such as ‘residence’ and ‘residence-cum-other use.’

‘Locked’ option

If a house is found locked by the enumerator, it gets temporarily listed in the ‘locked’ option. This is because the occupants may have gone out for work or some other purpose. The house will be moved to the ‘vacant’ category only if repeated house calls during the 30-day enumeration period indicate that it is uninhabited, Census officials said.

The 2011 Census counted a total of 1,12,17,853 houses in Kerala. Of this, 11,89,144 were reported as 'vacant' and 1,00,28,709 as 'occupied.' In the vacant category, 5,85,998 were in the rural areas and 6,03,146 in the urban areas. Malappuram had the highest number of vacant houses (1,50,941) followed by Ernakulam (1,36,722).

Families migrated

More recently, the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2023 conducted by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation and the International Institute of Migration and Development observed that during the data collection, many homes were found to be locked as entire families had migrated. “About 4.2 lakh (0.4 million) cases of family migration have been identified as part of KMS 2023,” the report said.

The period for self-enumeration under the Houselisting and Housing Census began on June 16. Enumerators will visit households from July 1 to July 30. Approximately 61,282 enumerators and 10,189 supervisors will be deployed during the month-long exercise.