New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday unveiled the official mascots and soft-launched four digital platforms that will power Census 2027, India’s first fully digital population census, with its initial phase scheduled to begin on April 1.
Shah introduced the mascots — ‘Pragati’ (female) and ‘Vikas’ (male) — symbolising equal participation of women and men in achieving the vision of a developed India by 2047. According to a government statement, the mascots will help disseminate information, objectives and key messages related to the upcoming census among diverse sections of society in a citizen-friendly manner.
Alongside the mascots, Shah soft-launched four digital platforms designed to streamline and monitor the nationwide enumeration process. These include the Houselisting Block Creator (HLBC) web application for digital mapping using satellite imagery, the HLO mobile application for field data collection by enumerators, a Self-Enumeration (SE) portal enabling citizens to submit household details online, and the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) — a central digital platform to manage the overall census exercise.
The digital tools have been developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to facilitate enumeration operations across the country.
The Census-2027 exercise, estimated to cost ₹11,718 crore, will mark the 16th population census of the country and will include caste enumeration. It will also provide citizens the option of self-enumeration for the first time.
Originally scheduled for 2021, the decadal census was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The census will be conducted in two phases: the houselisting and housing census from April to September 2026, followed by population enumeration in February 2027.
Under the system, enumerators will use the HLO mobile application to collect and upload houselisting data directly from the field using registered mobile devices. The application, accessible only to officials registered on the CMMS portal, supports both Android and iOS platforms and operates in 16 regional languages.
The Self-Enumeration portal will allow eligible respondents to submit household information online before field operations begin. Once submitted, a unique Self-Enumeration ID will be generated and later verified by enumerators.
At the centre of the digital framework will be the CMMS platform, which will enable authorities at sub-district, district and state levels to track enumeration progress, field performance and operational readiness through a real-time dashboard.
The system will support nearly 3.2 million field functionaries, including enumerators and supervisors, allowing them to capture demographic, social and economic data from millions of households using handheld devices.
The Central government had earlier notified its intention to conduct the census through a gazette notification on June 16, 2025, formally initiating the process for Census-2027. (Agencies)
