Ranchi district will begin a door-to-door child enrolment survey on November 20 to identify children who are out of school and update enrolment records for those aged between three and 18 years. The Shishu Panji survey will continue until January 10, 2027, covering households across the district.
The exercise is being conducted on the directions of the Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC). Its stated objective is to identify children who have dropped out or have never enrolled in school, so they can be admitted during the upcoming academic session.
Before the household enumeration begins, officials are completing habitation mapping, the first phase of the exercise. The mapping was originally scheduled to be completed by November 10, but the work was delayed because of recent school holidays and festivities.
Ranchi district superintendent of education Badal Raj said habitation mapping was expected to conclude by November 19, allowing the door-to-door survey to begin the following day. The teachers assigned to the exercise have already been trained, according to the official.
The survey will update the Shishu Panji, or child register, with information on the schooling status of children in each habitation. The age range means that the exercise will cover children and adolescents at different stages of school education, including those who may have left school before completing their studies.
The entire enumeration process will be carried out digitally through DAHAR 2.0, or the Digital Application for Holistic Action Plan and Review for Out of School portal. The portal is being used to record and manage information on children identified as being out of school.
The process places local teachers and district education officials at the centre of identifying children who may not appear in current enrolment data. A door-to-door approach is intended to reach households directly rather than rely only on existing school records, although the supplied information does not specify the number of survey teams, households or children expected to be covered.
Weekly meetings will be held to review the progress of the survey, Badal Raj said. The exercise is scheduled to run from November 20 to January 10, 2027, after which the updated information is expected to support admissions in the next academic session.
