Even before the clock strikes 7 am, Sarmishta Sahoo is ready to head to Banamalipur in Odisha’s Khordha district. The 25-year-old, dressed in a pink and black salwar kameez, is prepared: she’s packed two water bottles, a few packets of ORS, and official papers in her backpack. “I was 10 when the last Census was done in the country.

I know there’s pressure to complete the survey by May 15, but I like it. It’s a national duty and we have to do it. We don’t really have a choice,” she says, parking her bike at Banamalipur bazar, a small rural market that is her first stop.

Sahoo, an assistant teacher at a government primary school, is a Census enumerator. As house listing operations get underway across the country as part of Phase 1 of the Census 2027 since April 16, over 1 lakh enumerators — mostly teachers such as Sahoo — have been engaged for door-to-door enumeration to map buildings and collect data on amenities using a mobile app. This comes amid reports of the death of two enumerators allegedly due to ‘heatstroke’ and the assault on women Census officers in Dhenkanal district.

The Odisha government recently issued a standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure the safety and security of enumerators and supervisors in the field, including an advisory to avoid work during peak summer hours of 11 am to 3 pm. Officials at the census directorate said they haven’t received any official report on the death of the two enumerators.