Awareness efforts fail to boost Census participation in Dharwad

Dharwad

A lukewarm response to the self-enumeration drive for Census-2027 has placed Dharwad district at 12th position in the state, with overall progress reaching just 5.83% as of April 15, when the first phase concluded. According to official estimates, the district has around 4.78 lakh households. However, only 27,877 people have completed the self-enumeration process so far, showing limited public participation. Authorities have observed a general lack of interest among citizens in completing the exercise online.

At the state level, Ballari district leads with 19.03% progress (56,807 people), followed by Dakshina Kannada at 17.52% (99,366 people), and Bagalkote at 16.53% (72,837 people). The low response from the public, according to the officials is attributed to lack of interest, they say enough awareness was created among the residents to actively participate in this drive but the public showed least interest, said an official requesting anonymity.

With the population census scheduled for February 2027, the house listing process a crucial preliminary phase commenced on April 16 and will continue until May 15. This phase involves collecting detailed information on housing conditions, family members, caste, and other socio-economic indicators through a set of 33 questions. Officials clarified that the same questions answered during self-enumeration will be verified by enumerators during door-to-door visits. Citizens have been urged to provide accurate and complete information to ensure data reliability.

The online self-enumeration began on April 1. While only about 7,000 people participated in the first week, the following eight days saw a sharper response, with nearly 20,000 additional submissions. Within the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation limits alone, around 20,000 residents have completed the process.

Chief Census Officer and Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Commissioner Dr. Rudresh Ghali noted that higher participation in self-enumeration would significantly ease the workload during the next phase of physical verification. Authorities have also attempted to boost awareness by circulating information through WhatsApp and other local communication channels. Preparations for the next stage are in progress, with mapping for door-to-door enumeration carried out over the past few days.