The delay in doing the latest round of census has been a matter of much debate. But the Budget allocation for ‘Census, survey and statistics/ registrar general of India’ received allocation of just ₹574 crore for FY26. This is just 6.5 per cent of the government’s recent projections for cost of conducting census and also down 57 per cent from the revised estimate of ₹1,341 crore in FY25.
As per Budget documents, this particular line-item provisions for the “...Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India and various schemes of Registrar General of India (RGI) including National Population Register (NPR) and expenditure on Census, 2021.”
The allocation for this item has been moving lower in recent years. In FY22, ₹3,768 crore was estimated, but actual spending was only ₹505 crore. Similarly, in FY24, ₹1,564 crore was estimated, but spending was ₹572 crore.
When 2011 Census was conducted, the spending was much higher. In FY11, ₹1,999 crore was estimated, while ₹2,726 crore was spent. In FY12, ₹4,123 crore was estimated, with actual spends at ₹2,638 crore.
According to data from censusindia.gov.in, the proposed Budget for Census 2011 was ₹2,200 crore, whereas a release by PIB in 2019 stated that the cabinet had approved the cost for conducting Census 2021 at ₹8,754.23 crore. The RGI under the Home Ministry conducts a decadal census every ten years, which takes around 12 months to complete.
“The current outlay is not large enough to indicate that a census is planned for this financial year. The amount allocated this year may be what is required for the day-to-day running expenses of the Registrar General of India,” Shubho Roy, a public finance researcher, explained.
A former government official affiliated with the Census department said that while the allocation has decreased, it does not necessarily indicate that the census will not take place as it considered “unplanned activity,” and the expenditure planning follows the cabinet decision to hold it.