New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday formally announced the schedule for the first phase of Census 2027, covering housing and housing list measures, saying it will be conducted over a period of 30 days between April 1 and September 30 this year to be decided by each state or Union Territory. Invoking its powers under Sections 3 and 17A of the Census Act, 1948 read with 6A and 6D of the Census Rules, 1990 and in substitution of the notification dated January 7, 2020, “except in relation to matters done or omitted to be done prior to such substitution”, the Center said in the notification that the house list operations of Census 2027 shall have an option of self-enumeration, “which shall be done within 15 days immediately.” to be conducted prior to the start of the 30-day door-to-door home listing.”
Census will be conducted digitally for the first time
The release of the schedule for the first phase of the exercise officially begins a ten-year exercise before the Covid outbreak delayed the 2021 Census. It will be carried out in two phases – housing census and housing census followed by population census – between April 1, 2026 and February 28, 2027, with March 1, 2027, 00:00, being the reference date (except UT of). Ladakh and snow covered areas and non-synchronous areas of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand).On December 12 last year, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Modi had approved the proposal to conduct India Census 2027 at a cost of Rs 11,718.2 crore. The population census phase of the latest census will also capture caste identity.Around 30 lakh field officials will be involved in the census, the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world. Since it is the first digital census, it will use a mobile app for data collection and a central portal for monitoring purposes to ensure better data quality.The government had said last month that dissemination of census data will be done in a much better and user-friendly manner, with all queries on required parameters for policy making available at the click of a button.Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) will deliver data to government departments in a clean, machine-readable and actionable format.The census process involves visiting each household and administering separate questionnaires for housing listing, housing census and population census.The enumerators, usually government teachers and appointed by state governments, will conduct census fieldwork in addition to their regular duties.A dedicated portal, Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS) portal, has been developed to manage and monitor the entire process in real time. The public can self-list through the Census app or Census portal within 15 days before the start of the 30-day housing listing phase in their state/UT. Appropriate security features are provided for the digital census.
