NEW DELHI, Jun 4: India’s 16th Census with caste enumeration will be carried out in 2027 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.
It has been decided to conduct Population Census-2027 in two phases along with the enumeration of castes, it 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 said in a 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.
Officials said the second and final phase of the census will begin in February 2027 and conclude on 01 March 2027 (reference date).
It is immediately not clear whether the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR) will be carried out along with the Census or not. The government was planning to do it along with the Census in 2020 but the exercise was postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990.
The last Census was conducted in 2011 in two phases: Phase I of House Listing (HLO) from April 1 to September 30, 2010) and Phase II of Population Enumeration (PE) (February 9 to 28, 2011) “with reference date – 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2011, except for snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh for which it was conducted during September 11 to 30, 2010 with reference date as 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2010”.
The government recently decided that it will carry our caste enumeration along with the census. It will also be the first digital census giving the citizens an opportunity to self-enumerate.
The entire Census exercise is likely to cost the government over Rs 13,000 crore.
A meeting of the Union cabinet on December 24, 2019, approved the proposal for conducting the Census of India 2021 at a cost of Rs 8,754.23 crore and updating the NPR at a cost of Rs 3,941.35 crore.
However, the Budget 2025-26 allocated just Rs 574.80 crore for census surveys and statistics/the Registrar General of India (RGI).
A government functionary said the budget was a minor issue and could be sorted out without any impediment.
On April 30, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census.
The decision demonstrated that the Modi government is committed to the holistic interests and values of the nation and society, an official statement issued by the government on April 30 said.
