NEW DELHI: India’s government has notified the first set of questions for Census 2027, setting up what officials describe as the country’s first fully digital population count and the first national census since 2011. The Ministry of Home Affairs said the initial phase, the Houselisting and Housing Census, will collect details on housing conditions, household amenities and assets, and household particulars including the name and sex of the head of the household, with responses recorded as Male, Female or Transgender.
India notifies Census 2027 questions as the first phase of the digital count begins. (AI-generated image)
Census 2027 is scheduled in two phases, with the house listing exercise planned from April to September 2026 and the population enumeration planned for February 2027. The reference date for most of the country is midnight on March 1, 2027. For the Union Territory of Ladakh and specified snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date is midnight on October 1, 2026, with enumeration planned in September 2026.
Officials have linked the redesign of the census to a shift away from paper schedules toward app-based data capture and centralized monitoring. The Home Ministry says enumerators will still conduct door-to-door visits for complete coverage, and self-enumeration is positioned as an additional channel rather than a replacement. A March 2026 government briefing also described a secure web-based self-enumeration facility that allows respondents to submit household information online in 16 languages ahead of the field survey.
Digital tools and field checks
The government has outlined four core digital platforms for the operation: a web-map application to create and standardize houselisting blocks using satellite imagery, an offline houselisting mobile application for enumerators, a self-enumeration portal that generates a unique self-enumeration ID for verification, and a Census Management and Monitoring System portal designed to track progress and operational readiness in real time. Officials said the platforms are intended to support planning and supervision across administrative levels and reduce manual handling of records.
The Union Cabinet has approved the Census of India 2027 scheme at a cost of Rs 11,718.24 crore. The government has said about 30 lakh field functionaries, including enumerators, supervisors, master trainers and census officers, will be deployed, and that enumerators are typically government teachers assigned by state governments in addition to their regular duties. It also said census functionaries will receive an honorarium and that approximately 18,600 technical personnel will be engaged locally for digitization, monitoring and coordination tasks.
Schedule, caste count and legal basis
Officials have said Phase II, the Population Enumeration, will collect demographic, social and economic particulars for each individual, and will include a caste-related question. The decision to include caste enumeration was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on April 30, 2025, according to government statements. The Home Ministry has also cited the formal start of the Census 2027 process through a gazette notification of intent dated June 16, 2025, under provisions of the Census Act, 1948, and the Census Rules, 1990.
The government has framed Census 2027 as the 16th census in the country and the eighth after independence, and as a primary source of village, town and ward-level data used for official statistics and planning. It has also said the 2021 census, which was proposed on a similar two-phase model, was postponed after preparations were completed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Officials have said digital systems and a “census-as-a-service” approach are intended to speed up dissemination and deliver cleaner, machine-readable datasets to ministries. – By Content Syndication Services.