Census to be done in two phases between April 2026 and February 2027, questionnaire being finalised: Govt

New Delhi: The Registrar General and Census Commissioner is in the process of finalising the questionnaire for Census 2027 based on inputs and suggestions from various stakeholders, including ministries and Census data users, the government informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in written replies to a clutch of MPs, including Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, that caste enumeration will also be done during Census 2027 as decided by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on April 30.

Besides Rahul, questions on Census were raised by Congress MPs MK Raghavan and C Kiran Kumar Reddy, Trinamool Congress’ Shatrughnan Sinha BJP’s Eatala Rajender.

To a question by Rahul whether the government plans to publish the draft questions and seek inputs from public or people’s representatives, Rai said the Census questionnaire is finalised on the basis of inputs/suggestions from different Ministries, Departments, organisations, and Census data users among others.

The draft Census questionnaires are pre-tested in the field to assess their feasibility before its finalization of the same and as per Rule 6 of Census Rules, 1990, the census questionnaires are notified by the government, he said.

Rahul also asked whether the government would take into consideration best practices from previous exercises, including the caste surveys conducted in various states and to this Rai said, “census has a history of more than 150 years. Learnings from previous censuses are taken into consideration for conducting the next census. Before each census the inputs are also taken from concerned stakeholders.”

Rahul and his party Congress has asked the government to consider the caste survey conducted by party-led Telangana government as a benchmark for the Census 2027.

Rai told Sinha that timeline for Census 2027 has been kept the same like the past practices followed in previous census and it would not clash with board exams in which a lot of teachers who also become enumerators would have exam duties.

To his question whether disclosing caste for the census would be optional, Rai said under sub-section (2) of Section 8 of Census Act, 1948, the respondent is required to answer questions to the best of his knowledge or belief.

Rai also said the phase I – House Listing and Housing Census – of Census 2027 will be from April 1 and September 30, 2026 in a period of 30 days as per the convenience of the state or union territory government followed by Phase II – population enumeration – in February 2027.

He said the Census 2027 will be conducted through digital means.

“Data to be collected through Mobile Apps along with an online provision for selfenumeration. The entire process is to be monitored through a web portal. The pre-test of the first phase of the Census, that is, House listing and Housing Census has been organised as per the Gazette notification dated 16th October, 2025 in the selected sample areas in the States and UTs,” he said.