Govt notifies first phase of Census 2027, houselisting ops to begin April 1

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday issued a formal notification for the first phase of Census 2027, announcing that the houselisting operations will be conducted from April 1 to September 30 this year.

The massive exercise will span all states and Union territories, with each state/UT allocated a specific 30-day window within this six-month period. Additionally, a self-enumeration facility will be available to citizens 15 days prior to the commencement of the first phase in their respective areas.

“...the Central government hereby declares that the houselisting operations of the Census of India 2027 shall take place between April 1, 2026 and September 30, September, 2026 in all states and Union territories in India during the period of thirty days specified by each state and UT,” said a gazette notification issued by the registrar general of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan.

“There shall also be an option for selfenumeration which shall be conducted in fifteen days’ time period just before the start of house to house houselisting operations of thirty days,” Narayan said.

The much-delayed 16th Census, which will include caste enumeration, was announced by the government last year. It will be conducted in two phases and is expected to be completed by March 1, 2027.

In the first phase, enumerators go from house to house to collect details about the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household. This is also an opportunity for the enumerators to map the house for the headcount.

In the second phase i.e. PE (population enumeration), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected from February 1, 2027.

As exclusively reported by HT last month, RGI has asked all states/UTs to appoint the Census functionaries including principal census officers, district census officers, special charge census officers, etc by January 15 and register them on its portal.

The RGI had also asked the states to identify the enumerators and supervisors - the primary census functionaries responsible for field data collection - “in advance”. It added that an enumerator would be assigned for 700-800 people and one supervisor would oversee the work of six enumerators.

The state authorities were also told to have 10% reserve enumerators/ supervisors for any contingencies.

In December last, the Union cabinet has approved ₹11,718 crore for conducting the Census-2027. Announcing the decision, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Census 2027 would be the first digital exercise of its kind, which would not only help make the the data available in the shortest possible time across the country. He added that approximately 18,600 technical manpower would be engaged for about 550 days at the local levels to complete various tasks for Census 2027.