Officials count houses, draw maps as Census fieldwork gets under way in Ernakulam

Around noon, V.V. Shyamkumar, an upper division clerk at the Toddy Workers Welfare Board, would usually be busy at his office near Edappally. On Wednesday, however, still on duty, he stood under the hot sun in an unfamiliar lane at Thevara with a set of papers, a pen, a pencil and an eraser. Mr. Shyamkumar, one of the 6,500-odd enumerators deputed from various government departments in the State, was at Manayath Lane in Thevara as the Houselisting and Housing Census phase of Census 2027 kicked off.

Assigned to cover around 250 buildings in the area, the young official started with the house of M.K. Radhakrishnan, a retired banker-turned-lawyer. “This time I require only the building number issued by the Corporation. I will come back in a few days to collect more data,” Mr. Shyamkumar told the homeowner as he prepared to provide his details for the Census. Mr. Radhakrishnan promptly provided the numbers assigned to his house and the adjacent building owned by him and rented out to tenants. With the owner’s permission, the enumerator marked the numbers near the doors of the buildings.

There were only two children in the next house, a two-storey building nearing completion. They called their father over the phone, and he gave the numbers assigned to each floor.

“We have to count every roofed structure,” the enumerator said, pausing in front of a makeshift garage made of iron pipes and a tarpaulin sheet before proceeding to a commercial building housing a bank. In between, he took time to draw a rough sketch of the area he covered. “This is the toughest part,” he said jokingly.

If residents are absent or unable to provide the assigned building number, the enumerators mark the buildings with the number of the previous house and assign a sub-number in brackets.

Sixteen km away at Ponekkara, Varghese, Mr. Shyamkumar’s colleague, had covered 75 houses by 3 p.m. He said several residents had already completed the self-enumeration process, which was open between June 16 and 30. “They had their self-enumeration IDs, but we will require them only at the next stage, when we collect housing details and the number of residents,” he said.

The house-listing phase will continue till July 30.

Besides the enumerators, 23 in-charge officers at the municipality and taluk levels, 1,117 supervisors, four master trainers and 118 field trainers have been assigned to Census operations in the district.

Officials said the information collected through the Census would be used solely for statistical purposes. All personal information would be kept strictly confidential. Enumerators would visit the homes of people unable to use the online facility and collect the required information in person.

People can verify the authenticity of Census officials by scanning the QR code on their official identity cards using a mobile phone, officials said.