MUMBAI, May 17 -- Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Ghatkopar East is abuzz with activity on Saturday morning. A motley crowd of over 150 people-teachers, Asha workers, BMC health department staff-has queued up at a health post to embark on a vital government exercise: the 16th census of India, which was meant to happen in 2021 but was postponed. The government employees are there to collect their orders, kits, identity cards and rough maps before beginning field work. Nearly 24,500 enumerators and supervisors like them lined up at health posts and ward offices in the city to collect the paraphernalia needed for house listing and house census, the first phase of Census 2027. For the first three days, the teams will study and map their assigned areas. The actual process of collecting and uploading data on the census mobile application will begin from May 19. While some volunteers at Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar were assigned areas close to their schools or workplaces, many were not. One of these was supervisor Vikas Ghuge, who works at a school in Pantnagar, Ghatkopar. "I don't know this area so I have to first familiarise myself with it with the help of locals and accordingly plan work for my team," Ghuge said while checking the map given to him. Each supervisor has a team of six enumerators, and every enumerator has been given one block. The health department has divided areas into blocks based on the number of houses. These same blocks are used during polio and vaccination drives. The first day was not smooth for many staff members. Ghuge said he failed to get his supervisor order when he arrived at the health post. "After speaking to the local in-charge, he said it was at the ward office and he would get it for me," he said. "Many supervisors faced the same problem." The task ahead is large. Each block has nearly 5,000 houses, which means one enumerator may have to cover around 800 to 850 houses within one month. In crowded areas like Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, where houses are packed closely together in narrow lanes, the work becomes even more difficult. Around 1 pm, after a short briefing at the health post, Ghuge and his six-member team began a recce of the area with local health worker Pramila Khatkule. The team walked through the narrow lanes of Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar under the blazing afternoon sun, trying to understand the boundaries of each block and identify landmarks that would help them during the survey. The exercise continued till around 4.30 pm. Several teachers at the health post were also handling Booth-Level Officer (BLO) work along with census duty. Harishchandra Jaiswal, a teacher from a BMC school in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, said he was already working on pre-SIR work as a BLO when he received census duty. "I informed the electoral office that I was on census duty and they let me off from BLO work till June 20," he said. Confusion prevailed for some other staff members as well. Teacher Prakash Patil reached one health post according to an earlier order, but later found out that he had been assigned another centre. "After the intervention of officers, I was allotted the same post where I was earlier," he said. Dr Daksha Shah, the BMC's executive health officer and in-charge of the census work in the city, said that the 24,500 enumerators and supervisors, including reserve staff, had been appointed for Census 2027....