Census 2027: Dr Navjot Khosa flags off nine LED vans to spread awareness

The Punjab Census Directorate on Wednesday launched a publicity campaign using Digital LED vans to raise awareness about Census 2027 and encourage people to participate in the population enumeration exercise.

Director (Census Operations) Punjab, Dr Navjot Khosa, flagged off the vans at 11 am from the Directorate’s premises in Chandigarh.

Equipped with audio-visual displays and QR codes linking people to the official National Census Portal, the vans will travel across major towns, urban and rural areas, markets and other busy public places in the state.

The campaign aims to familiarise people with the census process, particularly the facility of self-enumeration, and encourage maximum public participation.

District officials will accompany the vans to coordinate their movement and organise publicity activities. Deputy Commissioners, who are also the Principal Census Officers, have finalised routes and identified suitable locations for displaying publicity material.

The Census 2027 is being conducted in two phases. The first phase, covering house listing and housing census, has been completed.

The second phase, involving population enumeration in Punjab, will be conducted from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027. The reference date for the exercise will be midnight on January 5, 2027.

Before the enumerators visit households, residents will have the option of completing self-enumeration online from November 16 to November 30. They can access the portal at se.census.gov.in and answer 40 census-related questions themselves.

The self-enumeration facility will close on November 30. People will also be able to provide their details directly to enumerators during the population enumeration exercise.

A revision round will be conducted for three to five days after the population enumeration to cover people who may have been left out.

Dr Khosa has appealed to the people of Punjab to cooperate with census officials and take part in the exercise to ensure accurate and comprehensive data collection.

A dedicated toll-free helpline, 1855, has also been launched to help people resolve queries or difficulties while filling out the census questionnaire.

Citizens can follow the Directorate’s official social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube at @censusdcopunjab for updates on the exercise.