The Centre has announced that Population Census-2027 will be conducted in two phases and the exercise will include caste enumeration this time.
A statement issued by the Home Ministry said that the exercise will be carried out later this year with the reference date of October 1, 2026, in snow-bound areas like Ladakh and of March 1, 2027, in the rest of the country.
The last Census was conducted in 2011 was also carried out in two phases.
Home Ministry Statement On Census
The Ministry of Home Affairs in a statement said, "The reference date for Population Census - 2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2027.
"For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2026," the ministry added in the statement.
The notification for the intent of conducting the Population Census with these reference dates will be published in the official gazette "tentatively on 16.06.2025, as per provision of section 3 of Census Act 1948", it said.
The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990.
Census 2021 was also proposed to be conducted in two phases with phase I during April-September 2020 and the second phase in February 2021.
According to Home Ministry, all preparations for the first phase of the Census to be conducted in 2021 were completed and the fieldwork was scheduled to begin in some States/UTs from April 1, 2020. However, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the country, the census work was postponed.
The government recently announced that it will carry the caste enumeration of the Indian citizens along with the census.
