The Centre on Monday issued a notification for carrying out 16th census in two phases along with caste enumeration in 2027.
But for the snow-bound states and Union Territories including Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh where the census will be completed by October 2026, in the rest of the country it would be over by March 1, 2027, the Ministry of Home Affairs had announced earlier.
“The reference date for the said census shall be 00.00 hours of the 1st day of March, 2027, except for the Union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” said the notification issued by Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (RG&CCI).
In respect of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be 00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026, the notification read.
Now the previous notification, number S.O. 1455(E), published in the Gazette of India on March 26, 2019, stands cancelled as it had declared holding of census of population in 2021 which could not take place due to the covid pandemic.
The last decennial population-based census survey took place in 2011.
According to MHA, about 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh Census functionaries would conduct the exercise digitally using mobile applications. Provision of Self-enumeration would also be made available to the people.
The MHA assured that very stringent data security measures would be adopted at the time of collection, transmission and storage.
It will be held in two phases. Houselisting Operation (HLO) will be conducted in the first phase to collect data on the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household, the MHA had said in a statement issued on Sunday after Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the preparation for the forthcoming Census with the Union Home Secretary, RG&CCI and other senior officials.
Subsequently, in second phase, population enumeration (PE), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected.
Caste enumeration will also be done -- the first after it took place in the British colonial era in 1931. However, a Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) took place in 2011 but the Manmohan Singh government did not officially release the data.