The Centre has issued the notification for the first phase of the Census of India 2027. House listing operations will be conducted between 1st April and 30 September this year across all States and Union Territories, during a 30-day period specified by each State/UT. The notification issued by the Home Ministry stated that provision for self-enumeration will be available for a period of 15 days prior to the commencement of house-to-house listing, as per the schedule notified by each State/UT.

This will be the first Census by digital means in the country, where data will be collected using mobile applications that will be available for both Android and iOS versions. About 30 lakh field functionaries, including Enumerators, Supervisors, Master Trainers, Charge Officers and Principal or District Census Officers, will be deployed for data collection, monitoring and supervision of Census operations.

The Census would be conducted in two phases. The first phase will be of Houselisting and Housing Census – between April to September, 2026, while the second phase will be of Population Enumeration (PE) in February 2027. For the Union Territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the population enumeration will be conducted in September this year.

Earlier, on the 12th of last month, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had approved the scheme of Conduct of Census of India 2027 at a cost of 11,718.24 crore rupees. Moreover, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, in its meeting on the 30th of April, last year, had decided to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census.