Kolkata Census House-listing Phase Ends; Missed Homes to Be Covered in Phase 2
Times of India | 14 September 2026Officials said most of the households in the state will be covered by Monday, but the ones where enumerators fail to visit will be covered in the second phase. The first phase was only the house-listing while the second phase will be the population count, said officials.
“Households that could not be covered in the first phase will be covered in the second phase. There is no reason to worry,” said an official at the state’s directorate of census operations.
A Rajdanga resident, a Kasba resident and a Beleghata resident were among people who told TOI that enumerators were yet to visit their homes. “I did not complete self-enumeration as I thought enumerators will visit my home during the field visits. I am a little worried now since none came to my home,” said the Beleghata resident.
The first phase began on Aug 1. Residents had a fortnight’s time to log into the self-enumeration website and complete their self-enumeration. The Census office had said enumerators would visit all households, irrespective of the fact if someone completed self-enumeration or not.
The enumerators started visiting households from Aug 15 and the door-to-door visits are scheduled to end on Monday.
An official of Kolkata Municipal Corporation said the civic body conducted door-to-door visits in Kolkata. "The first phase was only the house-listing phase. In the first phase, residents were only asked questions about housing conditions, household characteristics and facilities like drinking water, toilets, electricity, cooking fuel and internet connectivity,” he said.
The second phase — the population enumeration phase — will be carried out between Feb 9 and Feb 28, 2027. A revisional round will be conducted between March 1 and March 5, says the website of Census West Bengal.
In the second phase, “data on various socio-economic and demographic parameters like age, sex, literacy, religion, SC/ST status, disability, languages known, economic activity status and migration” will be collected.
“We found about 13 lakh households in Kolkata. Almost all of them have been covered by the field enumerators. The few households where enumerators could not reach need not worry. The second phase, when the population is counted, will see enumerators visiting each and every household,” said an official.
A dedicated 24x7 helpline — 1855 — is in place for the ongoing Census. “Many people dialled the number to say that enumerators were yet to reach their homes. We send enumerators to households from where we received calls,” said a KMC official.
