2 weeks ago
Census 2027 self-enumeration deadline arrives amid Bengal portal glitches
A census is when the government counts all the people and homes in a country.
For Census 2027 in India, people could fill in their own details online for the first time – this is called self-enumeration.
But the website had glitches: some people could not pick their district from a dropdown list, the captcha sometimes did not load, and saving a draft failed.
Trying a different browser, like Firefox instead of Google Chrome, sometimes helped a little but did not fix everything.
About 50 lakh households in Bengal finished their self-enumeration by Friday evening.
That is about 25 per cent of the state's roughly 2 crore households – the highest share of any state.
The deadline to finish online was midnight on Saturday.
Families that missed it will get a visit from a field enumerator between August 16 and September 14.
The census also has a second phase that records details of every household member, like age, sex, caste and religion.
The self-enumeration window for Census 2027 closes at midnight on Saturday after website glitches frustrated many residents in Bengal.
About 50 lakh of Bengal's roughly 2 crore households had completed self-enumeration by Friday evening.
Officials admitted technical issues were flagged at the highest level, noting this is the first census to offer online self-enumeration.
Officials said Bengal's 25 per cent completion rate is the highest among all states.
Residents reported faults such as district dropdown menus not opening, captchas failing to load, and the save-draft option not working.
- Who
- Residents of Bengal attempting self-enumeration for Census 2027, along with officials from the state's directorate of census operations and the state and central governments.
- What
- The Census 2027 self-enumeration window closes at midnight on Saturday after website glitches prevented many residents from completing the process.
- Where
- West Bengal (Bengal), India.
- When
- Self-enumeration deadline: midnight on Saturday; field enumeration is scheduled from August 16 to September 14.
- Why
- Self-enumeration was requested to ensure accuracy of census details and to speed up field enumeration.
Key facts
- Census
- 2027
- Self-enumeration deadline
- Midnight, Saturday
- Households self-enumerated by Friday evening
- About 50 lakh
- Total households in Bengal
- About 2 crore
- Completion rate
- 25% of Bengal households (highest among all states)
- Field enumeration period
- August 16 – September 14
- First phase
- House-listing and housing census: housing conditions, amenities, household assets
- Second phase
- Population enumeration: names, age, sex, caste, religion
Quotes
Official in the state’s directorate of census operations
Government agency official overseeing census operations
“Over the last 10 days, I tried to complete the self-enumeration twice, but failed on both occasions. First, the dropdown menu to select the district did not open. It was not possible to type the district’s name. I could not progress to the next step because the district name could not be selected.”
telegraphindia.com
“There were issues with the website, and that has been flagged at the highest level. This is the first time an online self-enumeration option was provided. We hope the website works better on Saturday (the last day for self-enumeration).”
telegraphindia.com








