• By Soumyaroop Mukherjee
  • Mon, 01 Sep 2025 03:06 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND
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Census 2027 Budget: The long due population Census of India, which was scheduled for 2020-2021, is set to commence next year, 2026. The Registrar General of India (RGI) has asked for an amount of Rs 14,618.95 crore for the enumeration process in a country of over 1.4 billion. The much awaited Census 2027, will be the first ‘Digital Census’ and it will map the population both on the basis of numbers and caste. It is also being called ‘Caste Census’ as the population count will also include caste-based data this time.

The RGI (a subsidiary of the MHA) has sent out a detailed note of the entire expenditure to the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), a central body under the Ministry of Finance. Once the amount has been approved by the EFC, the MHA will send it to the Union Cabinet for approval.

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The census is expected to be conducted in 2 phases across the country: 

  • In the first phase, the listing of households will be done which is expected to be done between April to September 2026. During this phase, housing conditions will be assessed based on the information related to available amenities.

  • In the second phase, enumeration of the population data will take place in February 2027, for the entire country, except for Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, owing to the logistical challenges that can come in the hilly terrains during the winter months. 

The Centre had notified the Census 2027 on June 16. 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. 

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How Is Census 2027 Different From Previous Census?

  1. The census data is expected to be collected through dedicated mobile applications which are built for this purpose. 

  2. The RGI is also developing a website, Census Monitoring and Monitoring System (CMMS), for the real-time monitoring and management of the entire exercise. 

  3. The option to self-enumerate will also be provided to the public and caste data will also be captured electronically. 

  4. Caste Census: Census 2027 also will have a new parameter included along with the existing parameters — caste. Earlier, the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) was conducted as a separate exercise and was never released. But now this data has been merged with the general census collection data and will be up for display to the public.  

The ramifications in the data collection process came on April 30 after the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) decided to include the Caste Census as part of the general census. More than 35 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed to conduct the Census, which is over 30 per cent higher (27 lakh) than the functionaries deployed to conduct the Census in 2011.