Weather ePaper Today’s Paper Journalism of Courage Trending Mumbai News Delhi News Chandigarh News Bangalore News Lucknow News Advertisement ‘He didn’t want to take up census duty’: Death of 2 teachers puts spotlight on process amid heatwave in Odisha While the schoolteachers are suspected to have died of sunstroke, the Special Relief Commissioner says it is yet to receive any report of sunstroke deaths in Odisha Written by: Sujit Bisoyi 3 min read Bhubaneswar Updated: Apr 28, 2026 11:01 AM IST Nearly one lakh enumerators in Odisha, mostly school teachers and around 17,000 supervisors, are engaged in the house listing survey, which is considered the first phase of the census. (File/representational photo) Make us preferred source on Google Whatsapp twitter Facebook Reddit PRINT Amid a heatwave in Odisha, two schoolteachers engaged in census duty died of suspected sunstroke in different parts of the state in the last two days. The Special Relief Commissioner’s (SRC) office, however, said it has not received any report of sunstroke deaths in Odisha.

In Mayurbhanj district, Rajkumar Hembram, a teacher at Baidyanath High School in Betoti block, died on Sunday. And, in Sundargarh district, Anurag Ekka, an assistant teacher at Jarada government high school under Gurundia block, died a day earlier. According to Rajkumar’s nephew, Laxmikant, his uncle suddenly fell ill after returning from census-related work on Sunday and was severely sweating.

He was rushed to a hospital in Baripada, where the doctors declared him dead. “He did not want to take up census duty, but he feared action from the authorities,” claimed Laxmikant. He was assigned three villages for census enumeration.

When contacted, Mayurbhanj district education officer Purna Chandra Sethi said an inquiry would reveal the cause of his death. Sethi said since the census is being done digitally, the deceased teacher had last enumerated 14 houses on April 22. “He has not fed any data from April 23-26.

I can’t comment on whether he was on census duty on Sunday,” Sethi told The Indian Express, adding that the deceased had high blood pressure. In Sundargarh district, Anurag fell ill during census duty on Saturday and was taken to the nearby healthcare centre and later to the district hospital, where he died the same day. According to a senior official, Anurag was removed from census duty after receiving a report about his ill health.

Nearly one lakh enumerators in Odisha, mostly school teachers and around 17,000 supervisors, are engaged in the house listing survey, which is considered the first phase of the census. Earlier, an enumerator engaged in census duty had died of suspected cardiac arrest after he returned from work in Sonepur district. The Odisha government has already issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) for census officials to ensure their safety and security.

In view of the rising temperature, the SOP advises enumerators and supervisors against field visits or work between 11 am and 3 pm. The letter issued by the Revenue and Disaster Management Department asked district authorities to take necessary precautions to prevent dehydration and heat-related illnesses, including providing ORS to enumerators. According to an IMD bulletin issued on Monday, heat wave conditions are likely to prevail at isolated places in the districts of Jharsuguda, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Boudh, Nayagarh and Sonepur in Odisha.

Several districts, especially the western parts of the state, have recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius for the past few days. Sujit Bisoyi is a Special Correspondent with the Indian Express and covers Odisha. His interests are in politics, policy and people’s stories.

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