Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 4: The nationwide population enumeration along with caste census, pending for the last five years, will begin from March 1, 2027, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Wednesday.
However, in snow-bound states and union territories, such as Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, it will begin early, possibly by October 2026.
The exercise to count the population will be done in two phases. “The reference date for Population Census – 2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March, 2027. For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October, 2026,” the MHA said.
The notification for intent to conduct a Population Census with the above reference dates will be published in the official gazette tentatively on 16.06.2025, as per provision of section 3 of the Census Act 1948.
The census will be conducted over these two phases and will contain a significant addition to the long list of questions asked of men and women nationwide – those on caste and sub-castes.
On April 30 the government had confirmed that questions on caste – i.e., an enumeration of the various castes and sub-castes, and the number of people in each – would be part of the next census.
The decision to include caste enumeration in the census – a demand pressed fiercely by the opposition – was announced months before a critical Assembly election in Bihar, over 63 per cent of the population of which comes from Extremely Backward or Backward classes.
In India the census is normally conducted every decade. The last national population count was in 2011. The 2021 census, which was due to begin from April, 2020, had to be abandoned because of the pandemic. The 2027 census, when it is held, will therefore be the first in 16 years.
The opposition has been pushing for a census to be held, arguing it is necessary to have an accurate, up-to-date count of population and socio-economic data for effective policy-making.
The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990. The last Census of India was conducted in 2011 in two phases, namely i) Phase I – House Listing (HLO) (1 April to 30 September 2010) and (ii) Phase II – Population Enumeration (PE) (09 February to 28 February 2011) with reference date – 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2011, except for snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh for which it was conducted during 11 to 30 September 2010 with reference date as 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2010.
Census 2021 was also proposed to be conducted in two phases in a similar manner with phase I during April-September 2020 and the second phase in February 2021. All the preparations for the first phase of the Census to be conducted in 2021 were completed and field work was scheduled to begin in some States/UTs from April 1, 2020. However, due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic across the country, the census work was postponed.
