Breaking: Teachers of aided, unaided private institutions can be appointed for Census duties: Centre
Babushahi Bureau
New Delhi, October 16, 2026: The Centre has amended the Census Rules, 1990, to allow states and Union Territories to appoint teachers from aided and unaided private educational institutions for Census duties.
The Ministry of Home Affairs notified the Census (Amendment) Rules, 2026, on Friday under the Census Act, 1948. The changes expand the categories of people eligible to serve as enumerators in the ongoing Census exercise.
Under the amended rules, eligible personnel include teachers from educational institutions run by the government, local authorities, aided or unaided private bodies, societies and trusts.
The revised provisions also allow the appointment of clerks from Central and state government offices, local authorities and various establishments, including public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts.
In addition, state governments and Union Territory administrations may appoint any other person they consider suitable for the work.
The amendment follows legal challenges in Haryana over the deployment of teachers from private unaided schools for Census duties. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had stayed two Haryana government orders on the matter and sought details regarding the availability of teachers. The petitioners had questioned the government’s authority to assign Census work to private school teachers.
The revised rules specifically include teachers from private aided and unaided institutions among those eligible for appointment, addressing a key issue raised in the dispute.
Census 2027 is being conducted in two phases: the House Listing and Housing Census, followed by Population Enumeration. The house-listing phase was carried out across most of the country between April and September 2026, while population enumeration is scheduled for February 2027 in most areas.
In Punjab and certain other states, the population enumeration schedule has been advanced to December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027. The exercise will be India’s first digital Census, with mobile-based data collection planned to support the collection and processing of information.
The notification was issued by Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner, under the Ministry of Home Affairs.