Centre announces Census 2027 schedule

New Delhi: The much delayed Census will be conducted in two phases along with caste enumeration for the first time, with the government setting 1 March, 2027 as the reference date for the decennial exercise for areas except for Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The government will kick in the exercise officially with a gazette notification around June 16, which will set 1 October, 2026 as the reference date for Ladakh and non-synchronous snow-bound areas of three states. The last time India conducted a Census was in 2011 but caste was not counted as part of the exercise, which is carried out under Census Act, 1948 and Census Rules, 1990.

If one goes by the Census 2011, the first phase of Census, which is house listing, is likely to be held between April and September next year and the second phase, when actual population count is held, in the last 21 days of February in 2027.

During Census 2011, the house listing was done between 1 April to 30 September, 2010 and population enumeration between 9 February to 28 February, 2011 with reference date similar to that of the latest exercise. In Ladakh and other snow-bound areas, the counting was held between September 11 and 30.

The now postponed Census 2021 was also proposed to be conducted in two phases in a similar manner with phase I during April-September 2020 and second phase in February 2021 but it could not be held owing to Covid-19 pandemic. The statement said preparations for the first phase of the Census were completed and field work was scheduled to begin in some States/UTs from 1 April, 2020 but the country went into a lockdown due to Covid-19.

It is immediately not clear whether the updation of the National Population Register (NPR) will be carried out along with the Census.

This is the first time that caste will be counted as part of the Census exercise in independent India. The last time caste enumeration happened in 1931.

Once the census is over, the provisional population count is likely to be out by about a month. However it may take another 2-3 years for the final report, which could be used for delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.

At present, the number of seats are frozen till 2026 with a caveat that delimitation could happen on the basis of a Census after 2026. With final data coming only by 2029-2030, the delimitation will happen only after that. A Delimitation Commission has to be set up for the purpose and it could take another couple of years for preparing its final recommendations.

This could also mean that the implementation of 33% quota for women in Lok Sabha and Assemblies will come into effect only after the delimitation exercise is completed.

The exercise, which will be the first-ever digital census in the country giving the citizens an opportunity to self-enumerate, will cost the government at least Rs 13,000 crore and on 24 December, 2019, the Union Cabinet had approved Rs 8,754.23 crore for Census and Rs 3,941.35 crore for updating the NPR.

The Opposition had raised concerns over the meagre allocation of Rs 574.80 crore in the latest Budget but the MHA had said it would approach the Ministry of Finance for additional funds if needed.

The announcement also comes at a time when the Opposition had raised the issue of Caste Census and the Modi government announced it in April, days after the Pahalgam terror strike.