There is significant news from the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the upcoming census. Key details about the 2027 Census phases have been shared, revealing that the initial phase will commence between April and September 2026.
According to the government notification, the first stage of Census 2027 (the house listing campaign) will take place over approximately 30 days from April 1 to September 30, 2026, and will involve all states and Union Territories.
Prior to this house listing operation, there will be a 15-day period offering the option for self-enumeration.
The Census Was Due in 2021
It's important to note that a national census is conducted every decade. According to this cycle, the Census was indeed scheduled for 2021, but the date was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The task of tallying the nation's population will now occur in two primary phases: house listing and housing census from April to September 2026, followed by Population Enumeration in February 2027.
A notification issued by Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, states, 'Just before the 30-day door-to-door census campaign, a 15-day self-enumeration period will be available.'
Caste-Based Data Will Also Be Collected
The government had previously indicated that the population counting phase of Census 2027 will also involve the collection of caste-related data electronically. The last exhaustive caste-based census was conducted by the British between 1881 and 1931. Post-independence, all subsequent censuses omitted caste data.
The decision to include caste data in the census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 30th last year.
This first digital census will involve approximately 3 million personnel. To ensure accurate data collection, mobile applications compatible with both Android and iOS will be employed.
According to the 2011 Census, the population of the country stood at 1.21 billion, comprising 620 million men (51.54%) and 580 million women (48%).
