SIR duty in winter, census in summer and teachers in the field even during holidays. This is the real picture of teachers in government schools of India. Whether the school is closed or open, their responsibility is not limited to just the classroom. On the other hand, the developed countries of the world conduct their census in such a smart and systematic manner that they do not need professionals like teachers to roam from street to street. Let us first understand what the teachers of India are going through, then let us know how the census is conducted in other countries of the world (especially the West)…

SIR in winter, census in summer: ‘Extra’ burden on teachers

Between November and December of the year 2025, when winter had just started, the Election Commission conducted a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign. This is the process of updating the voter list. To carry out this drive covering about 51 crore voters, the government made teachers Booth Level Officers (BLO). In this process which started from November 4, teachers had to go door to door for a whole month to distribute and collect forms. One highlight in Noida was that out of 2400 primary teachers, more than 1500 went on SIR duty, due to which the education of about 96,000 students was affected.

Now as soon as summer started, a new problem came to the teachers. More than 1 lakh government school teachers in Karnataka are being deployed for Census 2027 work. Teachers say that they have neither any leave nor rest. Many teachers had demanded exemption from SIR duty for those above 50 years of age, because teachers have also died during SIR duty in other states, but this demand was rejected.

Now comes the real question: How is census conducted in other countries of the world?

While our teachers are wandering from house to house in summer and winter, the magic of completing the census without human effort is visible in western countries. They do not have ‘backup’ for data like teachers do, so they have created technology and amazing systems.

1. America: ‘First you tell yourself, otherwise we will come’

America’s system is quite modern and they have implemented the concept of self-response on a large scale. First of all, a letter is sent to every household in which there is an option to go online and fill the form. If you do not fill online, then field agents go door to door.

Let us understand with an example: A special census was conducted in 2025 in ‘White House’, a city located in the US state of Tennessee. The first online response phase ran between July and August. After that, from September onwards, field representatives of the Census Bureau went door-to-door to those houses which had not responded online. These representatives are not teachers, but are staff of a specially appointed agency for this. Their target was that more and more people should fill the online form sitting at their home, so that the need to go door-to-door would be minimal.

2. Britain (UK): ‘Digital-first’ and team of experts

Britain last conducted the census in a ‘digital-first’ manner in 2021. This means that most people completed their census online. If anyone wanted a paper form, he could request it. In Britain, a census is conducted every 10 years. The government has also started preparations for the census to be held in 2031. Britain is so advanced in this matter that they are now focusing on online system for census. There, government teachers are not employed for this, rather this work is done by trained professionals of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

3. Germany: The glory of ‘Register Best Census’

Germany has one of the smartest systems. They are moving towards ‘Register-Based Census’ i.e. Registerzensus. This means that the government already has the data of every citizen. It extracts data about job, address, taxes and other things from government records (such as resident registration, social security, employment records). Now he does not need to go to everyone’s house. Only those people are selected as samples, whose records do not have clarity. This is called ‘Wohnsitzanalyse’, i.e. residence analysis.

In June 2025, about 1 lakh people across Germany had to fill a short 5-minute form by post/online as a sample. In 2022, Germany had adopted a ‘hybrid’ model for the census, in which data of some people was collected along with existing register data, but now they are preparing for a completely register-based census.

4. Japan: A different style of modernity

Japan conducts census every 5 years. Their 22nd census was held in 2025. Here people are given the option to respond in three ways: online, by post, or by handing the form directly to the enquirer. Their target is also that more and more people should respond online so that the enquirers face minimum problems. However, leaving aside government school teachers, Japan has created a separate system for census taking.

The Japanese government wants more and more people to fill the online form. For those who cannot use the Internet, the old-fashioned paper form is sent by mail. If someone doesn’t respond to both, then the field inquisitors knock on their door. While in India, more than 70% of the work falls on teachers, Japan depends on professional agents or field representatives for census work.

So why such a big difference?

You must be wondering why it does not happen in these countries that teachers miss their studies? There are three big reasons behind this:

1. Data is ‘booked’ in advance: In western countries, the data of every citizen from birth to death is recorded in the computer system. They do not need to go door to door to find out how many people live in the city. This data is automatically obtained from tax, health care and birth-death registers. This is called register-based census. ‘Accounting’ is already going on there for every citizen. For example, Denmark and Norway completely follow this system, they do not have any field work for census.
2. Teachers are hired to teach: The government bureaucracy in these countries is so strong and special that they have special staff to collect data. There it is a legal belief that a teacher’s job is only to teach. In India, Section 27 of the RTE Act states that teachers should not be employed in non-educational work, except in cases like census, elections and disaster relief.
3. Budget and Operation Scale: India has such a large population and the conditions of the country are so diverse that even fully implementing the digital system is a challenge. Where Google or Internet access is difficult, one still has to go door to door.

‘Digital’ census for the first time in India, but still dependent on teachers

The biggest update here is that India is going to conduct its first digital census (Census 2027) in 2027. This will be the first census after 2011. The government has approved spending about Rs 11,718 crore on this in a cabinet meeting. In this, data collection will be done through mobile apps and people will have the option to fill the information online also. Pilot projects have also been done for this.

This digital census will also not be able to provide complete relief to the teachers because more than 34 lakh enquirers are still to be deployed for the work of inventorying and data collection, which also includes government school teachers. So even though phones or tablets have come instead of paper, it is still the teacher who does the work.