New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a budget of ₹11,718.24 crore for the conduct of the 2027 Census, officially setting the stage for what will be India’s first fully digital decennial population count.
The reference date for enumeration has been fixed at 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027, restoring the country to a regular decennial cycle that had been disrupted when the 2021 Census was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the government, the massive nationwide operation will unfold in two distinct phases. The first phase — house listing and housing census — will be carried out between April and September 2026, during which each state and Union Territory will choose a 30-day period depending on administrative convenience.
The second phase — population enumeration — will take place in February 2027 across the country, while Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will complete the enumeration earlier, in September 2026, due to weather constraints.
Nearly 30 lakh field functionaries, the majority being government schoolteachers assigned as enumerators, will fan out across the country to collect household and population data in addition to their regular duties.
State, district and sub-district level census officers will supervise and coordinate the process under the legal framework provided by the Census Act, 1948, and the Census Rules, 1990.
Briefing the media after the cabinet meeting, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stressed that the Census remains one of the most critical datasets for governance, development planning and welfare delivery. He underscored that India has maintained an unbroken census tradition for more than 150 years, and the 2027 round will be the 16th national Census and the eighth undertaken after Independence.
Digital Transformation
A defining feature of Census 2027 is its full digital transformation. Data will be collected entirely through a mobile application available on both Android and iOS platforms, replacing the paper-based schedules historically used in Indian census operations.
The government has developed a new Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS) portal, which will allow real-time tracking of progress and field-level operations, marking a significant leap in accuracy, speed and transparency. Another new digital tool — the House Listing Block Creator web map application — will help charge officers demarcate enumeration blocks with improved spatial precision. The public will also be given the option of self-enumeration, allowing households to submit their information online, a facility introduced to increase participation, reduce workload on enumerators and enhance data accuracy.
Officials said that robust security safeguards have been integrated into every stage of the digital workflow to protect sensitive personal data on an unprecedented scale.
Census is expected to provide updated granular data on housing conditions, amenities, migration patterns, religion, language, literacy, fertility, education levels and economic activity down to the village, town and ward levels.
(Photo by Shubhangee Vyas on Unsplash)
Caste Enumeration
One of the most consequential policy decisions associated with Census 2027 is the inclusion of caste enumeration. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs had decided on April 30 this year to allow comprehensive caste data to be collected during the Population Enumeration phase. This will be the first time since Independence that a decennial Census will record caste across the population, and the data will be captured electronically.
The move is expected to generate extensive demographic and social insights for future policy formulation, especially in areas of affirmative action, welfare planning and the distribution of development resources.
The Census is also expected to provide updated granular data on housing conditions, amenities, migration patterns, religion, language, literacy, fertility, education levels and economic activity down to the village, town and ward levels, which constitutes the backbone of India’s statistical system.
Data Dissemination
In addition to ensuring faster processing of information, the government plans to revolutionise data dissemination. A new ‘Census-as-a-Service’ (CaaS) platform will provide ministries and departments with machine-readable datasets, enabling quicker policy decisions and easier integration with governance systems. Public access to Census results will also be expanded, with the release of visualisation tools and interactive dashboards that allow users to obtain information with a simple query.
The government expects that the scale and technological complexity of the operation will also generate significant short-term employment. Approximately 18,600 technical personnel will be hired for around 550 days at the local level for system management, monitoring support and digital data handling — translating to an estimated 1.02 crore man-days of employment. These roles, officials said, will contribute to local capacity building and enhance the long-term employability of the personnel involved.
Awareness Campaign
To ensure widespread participation, the Census will be accompanied by a major nationwide awareness campaign focused on accurate, timely and authentic information. The outreach programme aims to build inclusivity, encourage participation across remote and urban regions, and support field operations through last-mile engagement.
The government has emphasised that making the 2027 Census the fastest, most accessible and most user-responsive in India’s history is a key objective. With the cabinet’s approval of the budget and digital framework, preparations are now expected to accelerate toward what is set to be one of the most ambitious data-gathering exercises undertaken anywhere in the world.
(Cover photo by Dibakar Roy on Unsplash)