Gandhinagar, May 19 (IANS) More than 60,000 people in Gujarat have joined the Centre’s digital self-enumeration drive for the upcoming population census, Chief Secretary M.K. Das said on Tuesday while participating in the campaign himself.

Das completed the process by entering his family’s details on the online self-enumeration portal launched by the central government.

The initiative allows citizens to submit census-related information digitally instead of relying solely on traditional door-to-door data collection.

Speaking after completing the process, the Chief Secretary described the system as “extremely simple and transparent” and said the response to the campaign in Gujarat had been encouraging.

“So far, more than an estimated 60,000 citizens have availed themselves of this service,” he said.

Das appealed to government officers and employees across the state to participate in the campaign and encourage wider public involvement.

He also expressed confidence that the introduction of the digital facility would help make the census process faster and more accurate in the future.

“The entire process of population census will become much faster and more precise because of this new digital facility,” he said, while also thanking the central government for the use of technology in the initiative.

The campaign also saw participation from senior political leaders in Gujarat.

State Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker Purnesh Modi completed his self-enumeration through the online portal by submitting his family details under the campaign.

In a separate development, State Women and Child Welfare Minister Manisha Vakil also joined the self-enumeration exercise and used the portal to complete her family’s details online.

Vakil appealed to citizens to cooperate with the nationwide campaign. “All citizens should extend their cooperation to the self-enumeration campaign being conducted across the country,” she said.

The self-enumeration initiative forms part of the Centre’s broader push towards digitisation of public services and administrative processes.

According to the exercise schedule, the self-enumeration process began on May 17 and will continue until May 31, allowing citizens to submit household and family details online through the digital census portal.

The first phase of the census, comprising House Listing Operations, will be conducted across Gujarat from June 1 to 30 through door-to-door visits by enumerators in all 34 districts and 17 municipal corporations.

The second phase, involving population enumeration, is scheduled for February 2027. Officials said the census exercise in Gujarat was rescheduled after local body elections delayed the original timeline.

–IANS

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