Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Oct 31: India’s first digital Census, which will for the first time include caste enumeration beyond Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), will enter its final major phase on January 10, 2027, with the launch of a self-enumeration facility, followed by a nationwide door-to-door population count from January 25 to February 28.
The schedule has been announced through a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The Census will involve a 40-question questionnaire, including 13 new questions covering caste, religion, nationality, digital literacy, banking details and personal identification documents.
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Apart from basic demographic information, enumerators will collect several additional details, including the place and date of birth of both parents, the name of the spouse, permanent residential address and the place where the respondent received the Covid-19 vaccination.
The questionnaire will also seek passport numbers and information on the availability of driving licences. Respondents will be asked to furnish their mobile phone, Aadhaar and voter ID numbers, wherever available.
However, the exercise will begin ahead of the nationwide schedule in four poll-bound states — Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab. Self-enumeration in these states will be available from November 16, 2026, to January 5, 2027, while door-to-door population enumeration will begin on December 1.
According to the notification issued by Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, the nationwide population enumeration will take place from January 25 to February 28, 2027. A revisional round has been scheduled from March 1 to 5.
For the rest of the country, the self-enumeration facility will remain open from January 10 to 24, giving residents an opportunity to submit their information before enumerators visit their homes.
The notification has fixed midnight of March 1, 2027, as the reference date for the Census. It has been issued under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948, read with Rules 6A and 6D of the Census Rules, 1990.
Meanwhile, population enumeration has already been completed in Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on September 30. The exercise in violence-affected Manipur, however, has been deferred indefinitely.
The first phase of Census 2027, comprising House Listing Operations (HLO), commenced on April 1, 2026, and was completed across the country by September 30, with Manipur being the only exception.
The first notification for Census 2027 was issued on June 16, 2025, announcing February 2027 as the proposed period for the population count, while making separate provisions for Ladakh and snow-bound regions.
With the introduction of digital enumeration and the expansion of caste-related data collection, Census 2027 marks a significant change in the country's population-counting exercise.