HYDERABAD: Telangana will conduct the population enumeration phase of Census 2027 from January 25 to February 28, 2027, with a self-enumeration window from January 10 to 24, according to an order issued by the state General Administration Department on November 9.
The order republishes the Union Home Ministry's notification of October 30 in an extraordinary issue of the Telangana Gazette. A revisional round will be conducted from March 1 to 5, 2027, and the reference date for the count is 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027.
During the first phase of the Census in Telangana's Core Urban Region, which covers the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Cyberabad and Malkajgiri municipal corporations, self-enumeration was conducted from April 26 to May 10, 2026. Door-to-door house listing operations followed from May 11 to June 9, 2026.
Population enumeration will be conducted using a 40-question schedule notified by the Registrar General of India on August 14, 2026. Question 10 reads, "Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST)/Caste". It will allow respondents to declare their caste in an open-ended field rather than choose from a predefined list. This will be the first time since 1931 that caste details for all communities are being collected as part of the national Census.
The schedule also seeks information on Aadhaar, mobile, voter ID, passport and driving licence numbers, the number of bank accounts held, the place of COVID-19 vaccination, particulars of parents and spouses, digital literacy status and permanent residential address.
Census 2027 will be India's 16th national Census and the first to be conducted fully digitally. It will include self-enumeration through an online portal and a mobile application for enumerators.
Under the Census (Amendment) Rules, 2026, teachers from government, local authority, aided and unaided private educational institutions, societies and trusts are eligible for appointment as enumerators. Clerks and officials of the Central and state governments, local authorities, public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies, institutions, societies and trusts can also be appointed. State governments may appoint other people they consider suitable for the task.
The January-February 2027 schedule does not cover Manipur, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Ladakh and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and non-snow-bound areas of Uttarakhand have a separate schedule from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027. Snow-bound areas have an earlier schedule, while the Census in Manipur has been deferred until further notification.
(With inputs from media reports)