India begins digital Census
India will launch Census 2027 on April 1 with digital self-enumeration, beginning in Delhi and seven other States and Union Territories. The self-enumeration exercise will be followed by House listing and Housing Census beginning April 15.
Addressing a Press conference, Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan on Monday said, “Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Karnataka, Sikkim, Odisha, Lakshadweep, and Mizoram have chosen April 1 to 15 for self-enumeration and April 16 to May 15 for House Listing Census. Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu will carry out self-enumeration from April 5 to 19, with House Listing from April 20 to May 19... In NCT Delhi (MCD Area), self-enumeration will be done from May 1 to 15 and House Listing from May 16 to June 14. Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana will start Houselisting Census from May 1 to May 30 with period of self-Enumeration from April 16 to April 30, 2026”.
This is the first time that the RGI has introduced self-enumeration, where the public can digitally submit information during a 15-day window preceding the first phase of Census.
“Earlier, data was collected on physical paper, which took a lot of time in digitisation. We will start getting digital data right from the start, hence we will be able to issue such data very early. Many data sets will be published in 2027 itself,” Narayan added. He also said that individual data collected for the Census 2027 will be kept confidential under Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948 urging citizens to give accurate information to Census enumerators.
During the self-enumeration process, a person can fill in the details of her household on a dedicated portal and once it is submitted, a self-enumeration number is generated. This ID is to be handed over to the enumerator during the field visit and after confirming the self-enumeration data, the enumerator will include it in the original database.
The ‘Houselisting and Housing Census’ is the first phase of Census and will be conducted across India between April 1 and September 30 during which details related to housing conditions, assets and households amenities are collected.
This will be followed by the second phase in February next year when population is counted, and details of caste, demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household is collected.
Asked about caste being included in the Census and the apprehension that people may not give correct information, the Registrar General said the data related to caste will be collected during the second phase, and the questions will be decided after exhaustive discussions. Since the individual data shared by any person with a Census enumerator will be strictly confidential and cannot be used to derive benefit from any Government scheme, he said the apprehension that it will be misused is misplaced.
The last comprehensive caste-based count was done between 1881 and 1931. Caste was excluded from all census operations conducted since Independence.
