Overview
- The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Registrar General notified the Census (Amendment) Rules, 2026 on October 16, 2026, formally broadening who can be appointed as census enumerators.
- The amended Rule 3 explicitly lists three categories of eligible appointees: teachers of government, local authority, aided and unaided private institutions; clerks and officials of government and establishments; and any person a state or UT considers suitable.
- Several High Courts have already granted interim protection to private‑school staff and the Punjab and Haryana High Court stayed two Haryana communications seeking teacher details with the matter listed for hearing on April 29, 2027.
- Officials say the change responds to an operational need for roughly 34 lakh enumerators for the population enumeration phase and comes as enumeration in poll‑bound states is scheduled from December 1, 2026 to January 4, 2027.
- The amendment has drawn political criticism that it could be used for partisan appointments while census officials emphasise that Census 2027 is fully digital with 40 questions and that enumerator devices will have data removed after upload to central servers to protect privacy.