Key Points
Union Cabinet approves ₹11,718.24 crore for Census of India 2027, to be conducted across two phases in 2026 and 2027.
Census 2027 will be India’s first fully digital census and the first to include caste enumeration since Independence.
Around 30 lakh field functionaries will be deployed, generating over one crore man-days of employment.
The Union Cabinet on Friday, 12 December 2025, approved a budgetary allocation of ₹11,718.24 crore for conducting the Census of India 2027, marking a major step towards India’s first fully digital census exercise. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi and announced by Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Described by the government as the world’s largest administrative and statistical exercise, Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases across the country. The first phase, House Listing and Housing Census, will take place between April and September 2026. The second phase, Population Enumeration, is scheduled for February 2027.
For certain regions, including Ladakh, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, population enumeration will be conducted earlier, in September 2026, due to adverse weather conditions.
A key feature of Census 2027 will be the inclusion of caste enumeration. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs had decided on 30 April 2025, to include caste data in the upcoming census. According to the government, caste information will be captured electronically during the Population Enumeration phase.
The Cabinet approval does not include a separate budgetary allocation for updating the National Population Register (NPR). In 2019, the government had approved separate funds for the NPR and the Census of India 2021, which was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The absence of a specific NPR allocation has been noted in the government’s statement on Census 2027. The NPR is the precursor to the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Census 2027 will be the 16th census of India and the eighth since Independence. It will also be the first census to be conducted entirely through digital means. Data will be collected using mobile applications compatible with both Android and iOS platforms. A dedicated Census Management and Monitoring System portal has been developed to manage and monitor the entire process in real time.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the digital transition would significantly improve data dissemination. He said information would be made available in a more user-friendly manner for policymakers. Under the Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) initiative, census data will be delivered to ministries and government stakeholders in a clean, machine-readable and actionable format.
The government has also developed a ‘Houselisting Block Creator’ web map application to assist charge officers in planning and supervision. An option for self-enumeration will be provided to citizens, supported by suitable security features designed for large-scale digital operations. The minister said robust safeguards have been built into the system in line with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act to protect citizens’ data.
According to the Census Act, 1948 and Census Rules, 1990, census data collected from households cannot be shared in identifiable form. Only aggregate data up to the village, town, or ward level is made available to government departments and other users. The government reiterated that the census would continue to operate within this legal framework.
Around 30 lakh field functionaries will be deployed for Census 2027. These include enumerators, supervisors, master trainers, charge officers, and district and principal census officers. Enumerators are typically government officials, mostly school teachers appointed by State governments, who will carry out census duties in addition to their regular responsibilities. All census functionaries will be paid suitable honorariums.
In addition to field staff, about 18,600 technical personnel will be engaged at the local level for nearly 550 days. The government estimates this will generate approximately 1.02 crore man-days of employment. Officials said the exercise would also help build digital and data-handling capacities among personnel, improving future employment prospects.
The census process will involve visiting every household and canvassing separate questionnaires for the House Listing and Housing Census and the Population Enumeration. The questionnaire for each census is finalised based on inputs from ministries, departments, organisations, and census data users.
The government said a focused nationwide publicity campaign would accompany Census 2027 to ensure inclusive participation, last-mile engagement, and effective support for field operations. Officials emphasised that the aim is to make census data available at the shortest possible time, with improved visualisation tools and access down to the village and ward levels.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai also clarified in Parliament that the two phases would follow established procedures under the Census Act and Rules.
Census data remains the most comprehensive source of primary information at the micro level, covering housing conditions, amenities, demography, religion, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, language, literacy, education, economic activity, migration, and fertility.
The Census of India is shceduled to be held every ten years. The last census was undertaken in 2011, with the 2021 census postponed due to Covid-19. The upcoming census is set to take place 5 years after it was initially scheduled.
The government said Census 2027 would continue to serve as a critical foundation for policymaking and planning across sectors.
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