4 min readRanchiUpdated: May 18, 2026 05:13 AM IST
Amid fuel shortages at several petrol pumps in Jharkhand, a teacher at a government school in Garhwa district has gone viral for choosing an old family horse over a motorcycle to carry out Census-related fieldwork in remote villages.
Munna Prasad Gupta, 43, an assistant teacher at the upgraded government high school (Utkramit Uchha Vidyalay) in Tatidiri village of Dhurki block in Garhwa, said he began travelling on horseback for house-listing and map-preparation work linked to the Census exercise after struggling to access fuel in recent days.
“Petrol was not easily available, and there were long queues. So, I thought that instead of wasting time in queues, I should come up with an alternative. We have had this horse in our family for years, so I thought I should go on horseback,” Gupta told The Indian Express.
Videos of Gupta, dressed in a white uniform and government-issued census cap, riding a brown horse through village paths with survey material on his back, have been widely shared on social media.
According to him, the horse also proved useful in reaching settlements connected only through narrow dirt paths that cannot easily be crossed on motorcycles. “In such places, we can still go house to house on horseback and understand the conditions of every household while preparing the maps,” he said.
Gupta said his family has traditionally used horses and that he had learnt riding from his father in his childhood. The sight of him riding the horse into villages would usually draw the attention of children, many of whom had only seen horses in pictures. “Children born after 2018 or 2019 mostly know horses from images. They came close, saw the animal directly and became very excited,” he said.
Gupta, who has been teaching since November 25, 2003, said this was his first Census duty assignment.
Fieldwork
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The teacher said he started the fieldwork on Saturday, despite it being a school holiday, because he considered the Census assignment an important government responsibility. “I thought if the Government of India has given me this responsibility, then I should begin immediately and complete it with sincerity,” he said.
The work includes house listing and preparation of “nazri naksha”, or sketch maps of households and localities. Gupta said the process is expected to continue for around a month and may involve visiting between five and 20 houses daily. “Sometimes, mobile networks do not work. Sometimes, people are not at home, and we have to revisit the houses later. So, the number of houses covered each day can vary,” he said.
Gupta said nobody has objected to his going for the duty on horseback. “People are appreciating it. I only thought about saving fuel and using what was available at home,” he said.
Jharkhand began the first phase of Census 2027 — “House Listing and Housing Census” — on May 16. This will continue till June 14. The state government has deployed thousands of enumerators and supervisors for door-to-door surveys, with data being collected digitally through mobile applications for the first time.
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Gupta said the horse is usually brought out only during festivals, village ceremonies and religious rituals, but he now plans to continue using it during the initial phase of the Census work. “The survey work may continue for around a month, with enumerators required to visit households repeatedly in areas with poor connectivity or where residents are unavailable. My horse will help me to deal with this fuel crisis in India,” he said.
