The Self-Enumeration Portal: Registration, SE ID and Process

Self-enumeration — respondents filling, completing and submitting the census schedule themselves — is available for the first time in Indian census history, enabled by the Census (Amendment) Rules, 2022. The official portal is https://se.census.gov.in/, run by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Timing: the portal opens for 15 days immediately before each State/UT's 30-day houselisting round (e.g., April 1-15, 2026 in Goa); a separate self-enumeration window for the Population Enumeration phase is notified later (it ran August 17-31, 2026 for snow-bound areas).

Login process (per the official Goa government FAQ): select State/UT, pass CAPTCHA verification, enter the name of the head of household, a mobile number and optional email; an OTP is sent to the mobile (and email) for verification. No documents are required and none are uploaded — information is recorded as declared. To locate the residence, the user selects the district, enters PIN code, searches by village/locality/street/landmark, then places a marker on their exact house on a map; this geolocation assigns the household to an enumerator, and a wrongly placed marker can make the household data unavailable in the enumerator's app.

On submission a unique 11-digit Self-Enumeration ID (SE ID), prefixed with 'H', is displayed and sent by SMS/email. The enumerator still visits every household: those who self-enumerated share the SE ID, the enumerator verifies responses, adds field data points (Building Number, Census House Number, Use of Census House) and uploads the final record; without a correct SE ID the enumerator re-collects everything. SE ID can be retrieved via the portal with the registered mobile number.

Drafts can be saved and edited until final submission or the window's last day; after that only the enumerator can edit during verification. Eligibility limits: only Normal Households can self-enumerate — institutional and houseless households cannot; an internet connection is required; the portal is geo-restricted to within India's boundaries (NRIs abroad cannot use it); it is georeferenced so access is restricted to devices within the notified area (Civils Daily, on the Phase 2 portal).

Self-enumeration is optional, in 16 languages (English plus 15 Indian languages), with tooltips, user guide, flow chart, FAQs, tutorial video and validation checks built in. The head of household or any responsible adult can fill details for all normally-residing members (Phase 1 collects only household/housing data; individual member details come in the 2027 Population Enumeration phase). Uptake: over 5.72 lakh households had self-enumerated by April 10, 2026 (first tranche of states); over 26 lakh by a later date; around 82 lakh households by the RGI's late-August 2026 press conference (newsonair/PIB).

Data is encrypted and stored on secure government servers.