2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Apr 19, 2026 06:56 PM IST
Hours after a local flagged a glaring error on India’s official Census 2027 self-enumeration portal – showing Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh as China’s ‘Medog’ – authorities corrected the map, underscoring the challenges of the upcoming digital census.
The issue surfaced when Group Captain (retired) Mohonto Panging Pao, a resident of Pasighat, tried to register on the Census official website, se.census.gov.in. The site’s map interface erroneously labeled his town, in East Siang district, as ‘Medog’, a location across the border in China. Sharing a screenshot of the error on the social media platform ‘X’, Panging wrote: “Medog is a town in China! CEO of Google @sundarpichai is Indian! Even official Govt portals are virtually ceding our territory! Needs urgent intervention!”
In a separate post on ‘X’, the Office of the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India informed: “An issue was mentioned during Self-Enumeration…regarding map location in Pasighat, East Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh today. The issue was raised with the map services provider, and it has been resolved.”
The field operations for the Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO), constituting Phase I of the Census 2027, started April 16 across eight states and UTs, following the conclusion of the 15-day self-enumeration period.
“The exercise will be carried out over a 30-day period till May 15, during which trained enumerators will undertake house-to-house visits for data collection. As part of the digital approach adopted for Census 2027, so far around 12 lakh households have successfully availed self-enumeration facility through the official portal,” a Ministry of Home Affairs official said.
Residents who have completed the digital process are required to share their self-enumeration IDs with the field enumerators, who will use a dedicated mobile application to collect data digitally to ensure high accuracy and fast processing, the MHA said.
