New DelhiSeptember 1, 2025 06:58 AM IST
First published on: Sep 1, 2025 at 06:54 AM IST
The Registrar General of India (RGI) has sought a Rs 14,618.95-crore budget to conduct the Census 2027, which will be the first “Digital Census” and collect data on caste, The Indian Express has learnt.
Earlier this month, the RGI, which comes under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), circulated a note seeking the approval of the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), a central body under the Ministry of Finance that appraises government schemes and projects. Once cleared by the EFC, the MHA will move a proposal for the approval of the Union Cabinet.
The amount sought is for both phases of the Census: the houselisting operation that will be conducted from April to September 2026, and population enumeration that is scheduled to begin in February 2027 in the entire country, except for Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, where it will be conducted in September 2026. During houselisting, details on housing conditions, household amenities, and assets possessed by the households will be collected.
According to sources, the next Census will be the first digital one as data will be collected through dedicated mobile applications developed for the purpose. The option to self-enumerate will also be provided to the public and caste data will also be captured electronically, sources said. On April 30, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) had decided to include caste enumeration in the Census. It is learnt that the RGI is also developing a website, Census Monitoring & Monitoring System (CMMS), for the real-time monitoring and management of the entire exercise.
More than 35 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed to conduct the Census, which is over 30% higher (27 lakh) than the functionaries deployed to conduct the Census in 2011.
The Centre had notified on June 16 its intention to conduct the Census 2027. This is the first time that the decennial Census has been delayed by six years. In December 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal to conduct the Census in 2021 for Rs 8,754.23 crore and update the National Population Register (NPR) for Rs 3,941.35 crore. The Census 2021 was also planned in two phases — houselisting operations from April to September 2020 and population enumeration from February 9 to 28, 2021 — but could not be conducted following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The decennial population Census has been conducted since 1872 without a break. The Census 2027 will be the 16th decadal Census overall and the eighth since Independence. During the exercise, village, town and ward-level population data on various parameters are collected. This includes data on housing conditions, amenities and assets, demography, religion, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, language, literacy and education, economic activity, migration, and fertility. As per the 2011 Census, the country’s population was 1.21 billion as of March 1, 2011. It is projected to climb to 1.41 billion this year.