Technical Glitches Defeat Purpose Of Self-Enumeration Forms; Upload Errors In Majority Of Homes, Say Census Workers In Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The door-to-door enumeration for the ongoing census has begun, but field workers say technical glitches are slowing down the process.

Enumerators have reported frequent issues while uploading self-enumeration forms submitted by residents, with the problem surfacing in a large number of households.

According to several enumerators, nearly every third house is affected. “When we visit a house and try to upload the self-enumeration form, the system does not accept it. This is happening in the majority of cases,” said Upendra Kaushal, an enumerator involved in the exercise.

A similar concern was raised by another enumerator posted in Mandideep, who claimed that upload failures are occurring in almost 70% of the houses he visits. “Because of this, we are forced to re-enter the details manually, which increases our workload and delays the process,” he said.

Responding to these complaints, Joint Director of Census Namit Yadav attributed the issue primarily to errors made during the self-enumeration process. He said many residents are not correctly geo-tagging their location while filling out the form.

“A cursor appears on the map, and users are required to drag it to the exact location of their house. Instead, many people pin it wherever it appears, assuming it is close enough,” he said.

Yadav added that improper downloading of the Self-Enumeration ID (SEID) is another contributing factor. In some cases, duplicate submissions from the same location may also lead to rejection during upload.

Field challenges persist

Enumerators have also alleged that improper house marking by municipal staff is creating additional hurdles. They said unclear or missing house numbers are making it difficult to identify and verify properties on the ground, with entire days being wasted searching for houses.

However, Yadav said that while pre-marked house numbers can be helpful, it ultimately remains the responsibility of enumerators to correctly identify and mark houses during the survey, regardless of whether prior markings exist.

Key issues

Upload failure of self-enumeration forms

Incorrect geo-tagging by residents

Manual re-entry of data by enumerators

Missing or unclear house numbers

Delays in door-to-door verification process