Houselisting Schedule overview: 33 notified questions

ANNOUNCED/OFFICIAL. The Phase 1 (Houselisting and Housing Census) questionnaire was notified via gazette notification S.O. 353(E) dated 22 January 2026, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (Office of the Registrar General, India) under Section 8 of the Census Act, 1948, superseding S.O. 120(E) of 7 January 2020 (the schedule prepared for the postponed 2021 census). It contains 33 questions grouped as: condition of the house (building/house ID, floor/wall/roof materials, use, condition), household information (household number, size, head's name/sex/SC-ST status, ownership, rooms, married couples), amenities (drinking water, lighting, latrine, waste water, bathing, kitchen/LPG-PNG, cooking fuel), assets (radio, TV, internet, laptop/computer, phone, vehicles) and others (main cereal consumed, mobile number).

Note on the count: the official PIB Backgrounder of 25 April 2026 displays the same list as 34 rows because it adds 'Line Number' (an enumerator-filled form field) as item 1; the gazette's question count is 33, and some self-enumeration guides therefore describe '34 questions'. Data collection is via mobile app (Android/iOS, 16 languages) with an optional 15-day self-enumeration window (se.census.gov.in) before each State/UT's 30-day door-to-door round between 1 April and 30 September 2026.

Confidence: high (official).