Centre amends rules to deploy private school teachers for census duty

New Delhi: The government has amended the rules to rope in teachers from private educational institutions as enumerators for the nationwide census exercise. On Friday, an amendment to the Census Rules, 1990, was notified, allowing states and Union Territories to appoint teachers from "aided and unaided private bodies" as enumerators.

According to the gazette notification issued by the Registrar General of India, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, not only can teachers from government and aided institutions be roped in for census duty but the rules will also apply to teachers from private schools and colleges. The notification specifies that (i) "Teachers of any educational institution of the government, local authority, aided or unaided private bodies, societies or trusts; (ii) Clerks or any official of the central government, state government, local authority or establishment (including public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts); (iii) Any person, as the state government or the Union Territory administration may consider suitable" can be appointed as census officers.

The notification comes amid a legal challenge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the requisition of teachers from private schools for census duty. The petition was filed by the Haryana Progressive Schools Conference. On October 8, the court stayed the operation of two Haryana government communications seeking details of teachers available for census duty.


The petition stated that the government had no authority to requisition teaching staff from private unaided schools for census duty.

The 2027 Census has already begun and will be conducted in poll-bound states from December, followed by a nationwide rollout next year. The government has approved ₹11,718 crore for conducting the census. The exercise was originally scheduled for 2021 but was deferred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.