Archive · 18 Aug 2026
7,000 Calcutta Teachers Exempted From Teaching for Census Duty
In the city of Calcutta, the government is counting all the people who live there.
This big counting job is called a census.
To help with the counting, about 7,000 teachers from almost 2,000 schools have been asked to stop teaching for a while.
Instead of being in classrooms, these teachers will visit homes to check information people sent online or collect new information.
The city's municipal corporation said the time teachers spend on census work counts as regular work duty.
That means the teachers will not lose their jobs or miss out on promotions for helping with the census.
But school principals are worried because many of their teachers are gone.
In one school, 10 out of 21 teachers are doing census work, leaving very few to teach.
Exams are coming in September, and principals do not know how students will be prepared.
The teachers were also busy with election work earlier this year, so schools have been short of teachers for a while.
Around 7,000 teachers from 1,851 government and aided schools in Calcutta have been exempted from teaching duties to focus on the ongoing population census.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation ordered heads of institutions to grant teachers engaged in census work an 'on-duty facility' so they can focus solely on enumeration.
School heads expressed concern about conducting classes and completing the syllabus, with some schools losing nearly half their teaching staff to census duty.
The order came after a lawyer told Calcutta High Court that several other states grant teachers an on-duty facility for census work.
The census deployment follows earlier teacher engagement in electoral roll revision and comes amid a stalled teacher recruitment process.
- Who
- Around 7,000 teachers from 1,851 government and aided schools in Calcutta, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), and school heads such as Raja Dey and Sayantan Das.
- What
- Teachers have been exempted from teaching duties and granted an on-duty facility to work as enumerators for the ongoing population census.
- When
- Orders were issued on August 16; the census began August 1, with self-enumeration for the first 15 days.
- Where
- Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India.
- Why
- To complete the Census of India — Houselisting and Housing Census; a KMC official said teachers were otherwise unwilling to work as enumerators.
Census Authorities
School Officials
Teacher deployment for census work
Census Authorities
Census work must be completed, and teachers are needed as enumerators; without them the exercise will remain incomplete.
School Officials
Releasing teachers for census duty leaves schools unable to conduct classes or complete the syllabus, especially with September exams approaching.
On-duty facility for census work
Census Authorities
Teachers should be granted an on-duty facility, as other states do, so they can focus solely on enumeration without career disadvantage.
School Officials
The state education department opposed the on-duty benefit because of the acute shortage of teachers in Bengal's schools.
- Teachers deployed
- Around 7,000
- Schools affected
- 1,851 government and aided schools in Calcutta
- Nodal agency
- Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC)
- Census exercise
- Census of India — Houselisting and Housing Census
- Order date
- August 16
- Legal basis
- Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948
- Self-enumeration period
- August 1-15
- Example impact
- 10 of 21 teachers at Mitra Institution Bhowanipore assigned as enumerators