The Centre has allocated Rs 11,728 crore for Census that will start in February 2027.
The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday approved the allocation of Rs 11,728 crore for Census that will start in February 2027.
The Census 2027 will be done in two phases. In the first phase, house listing and housing census will be done between April and September 2026. In the second phase, population enumeration will start in February 2027.
For Ladakh and snowbound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, population enumeration shall be conducted in September 2026, the Cabinet said in a statement.
Notably, as per the Cabinet’s decision in April, this will be the first census that will also include caste details.
“With the huge social and demographic diversity in our country and related challenges, the Census 2027 will also capture Caste data electronically in second phase, i.e. Population Enumeration (PE),” the Cabinet statement read.
The entire exercise will include around 30 lakh staffers in various capacities of enumerators, supervisors, master trainers, charge officers, and principal and district census officers for data collection, monitoring, and supervision of Census operations, the statement read.
The Census 2027 will be 16th Census in India and eighth after independence. It is expected to be the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world.
How Census 2027 will be conducted
The Census will involve government personnel visiting each and every household and canvassing separate questionnaire for house-listing and housing Census and population enumeration, according to the Cabinet’s statement.
The enumerators, who are generally government teachers and appointed by the state governments, will be doing the field work of Census in addition to their regular duties, and they will be paid an honorarium for their work.
This will be the first Census to be conducted by digital means. Data will be collected using mobile applications that will be available for both Android as well as iOS versions. The Cabinet said that the digital data collection and the Central portal for monitoring purpose will ensure better quality data.
Among unique arrangements for Census 2027, the Cabinet said a dedicated portal named ‘Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS)’ has been developed for managing and monitoring the entire Census process on a real time basis. Another application named ‘Houselisting Block (HLB) Creator’ web map has been created to be used by the charge officers.
During the census, micro-level data on various parameters like housing condition; amenities and assets, demography, religion, whether they are from scheduled castes (SCs) or scheduled tribes (STs); language, literacy, and education; economic activity; migration; and fertility.
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