Sri Vijayapuram, April 10, 2026:

The recent appointment of government personnel for census duties in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has renewed discussion over administrative planning and workforce utilisation, drawing attention to a governance practice that has increasingly come under public scrutiny.

While the move is legally supported under the Census Act, 1948, which authorises the deployment of government staff for national exercises, concerns are being raised regarding the repeated reliance on the same categories of employees for multiple administrative responsibilities.

In regions such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where manpower availability remains limited, teachers, health workers and administrative personnel are frequently assigned duties beyond their primary roles. From census operations to election work and public health campaigns, repeated deployment has gradually become an established administrative pattern.

Observers argue that while the approach may offer short-term administrative convenience, it also highlights the absence of a dedicated auxiliary workforce capable of supporting large-scale national exercises. Departments more closely aligned with field data collection, including statistical and revenue units, are often perceived as comparatively underutilised.

Experts suggest that teachers and similar personnel are commonly selected because of their literacy, organisational reliability and ease of mobilisation. However, the practice has raised concerns regarding its broader institutional impact.

The diversion of teachers can affect classroom continuity, particularly in smaller island regions where substitute arrangements remain limited. Similarly, assigning non-medical responsibilities to healthcare personnel may place additional strain on already stretched public health systems.

The issue has also reopened broader discussions regarding fairness and equitable workload distribution within government departments, with some observers linking the debate to constitutional principles of equality and administrative balance.

At the same time, concerns over manpower shortages continue to exist despite a section of educated youth in the islands reportedly remaining underutilised due to limited employment opportunities.

Experts have suggested that structured engagement of trained youth in temporary national exercises such as census operations could reduce pressure on existing government staff while improving efficiency through more role-specific deployment. At present, however, no formal mechanism exists to systematically integrate such a workforce into administrative processes.

Census operations play a critical role in national planning, influencing decisions related to welfare schemes, infrastructure development and public resource allocation. As a result, questions regarding data accuracy and operational consistency have also emerged.

Although short-term training programmes are conducted prior to field deployment, some experts believe that assigning large-scale data collection responsibilities to personnel without specialised experience may affect consistency in data gathering across diverse regions and conditions.

The issue carries particular significance in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where geographic isolation and limited institutional capacity often magnify the impact of administrative inefficiencies. In such conditions, diversion of personnel can affect the functioning of entire departments with limited scope for replacement or operational backup.

While the legal framework continues to support such appointments, evolving administrative demands have intensified calls for a broader re-evaluation of workforce planning strategies.

The debate surrounding census appointments increasingly reflects a larger governance question—not merely whether authorities possess the power to deploy personnel, but whether existing systems represent the most efficient and equitable utilisation of available human resources.

As discussions continue, many observers believe that improved workforce planning, broader participation and more specialised role allocation could significantly strengthen administrative outcomes, particularly in geographically sensitive regions such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Originally published in Dweep Tulika, Volume IX, Issue No. 1.

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