By Zainul Abi Din Raina

India’s Census ranks among the largest administrative exercises in the world. 

Census 2027 is expected to deploy nearly 30 lakh enumerators to collect data that guides decisions on schools, hospitals, roads, welfare programs and public spending. 

The exercise will help determine how governments plan for the future.

But that national effort raises an important question: why should school teachers continue to form the backbone of census operations?

Government teachers have performed this role with commitment for decades. Their education, public trust and presence in nearly every village made them a practical choice when census operations depended heavily on paper records and local networks. 

But conditions today present a different reality.

Schools throughout India are striving to improve learning outcomes, while many continue to operate with limited teaching staff. 

Every teacher assigned to census work spends weeks attending training sessions, conducting field surveys, verifying information and managing data collection. 

Those responsibilities pull educators away from the task they were hired to perform: teaching children.

The........

© Kashmir Observer