Around 30 lakh Census functionaries, including supervisors, master trainers, charge officers and district census officers, will be deployed. All of them will receive an honorarium for working on the Census alongside their regular duties
To deliver the digital Census, about 18,600 technical personnel will be hired for 550 days, generating 1.02 crore man-days of employment. Representational pic
The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the proposal to conduct the Census of India 2027, the world’s largest administrative and statistical exercise, at a cost of Rs 11,718.24 crore, news agency ANI reported.
Briefing the media on the Cabinet decisions, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Census 2027 will be the 16th census overall and the eighth since Independence.
“Census 2027 will be the first-ever digital census. The digital design of the census has been made keeping in mind data protection,” he said.
The Census will be carried out in two phases:
Houselisting and Housing Census — April to September 2026
Population Enumeration (PE) — February 2027
For the Union Territory of Ladakh, snowbound areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, PE will be conducted in September 2026.
Nearly 30 lakh field functionaries will be deployed for the massive national exercise, ANI reported.
First digital Census with mobile app, monitoring portal
An official release said data collection will be done using a mobile application, while a central portal will be used for real-time monitoring, ensuring higher data quality.
“Data dissemination will be much better and in a user-friendly way… Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) will deliver data to ministries in a clean, machine-readable and actionable format,” the release stated.
Census 2027 will cover every household in the country, with enumerators — mostly government school teachers — canvassing separate questionnaires for both phases. Additional Census officials will be appointed at sub-district, district and state levels.
New digital initiatives for 2027
First fully digital Census using mobile apps on both Android and iOS
Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS) portal for real-time supervision
HLB Creator web map application for Houselisting Block creation
Self-enumeration option for the public
Enhanced security features for the digital process
The Cabinet meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Caste enumeration to be included
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, at its April 30 meeting, decided to include caste enumeration in Census 2027.
“With the huge social and demographic diversity in our country and related challenges, Census 2027 will also capture caste data electronically in the Population Enumeration phase,” the release said.
Massive workforce, skill development, faster data release
Around 30 lakh Census functionaries, including supervisors, master trainers, charge officers and district census officers, will be deployed. All of them will receive an honorarium for working on the Census alongside their regular duties.
The government expects to release Census data in the shortest possible time, with improved visualisation tools and data availability down to the village and ward level.
To deliver the digital Census, about 18,600 technical personnel will be hired for 550 days, generating 1.02 crore man-days of employment, ANI reported. This is expected to build capacity in digital data handling, monitoring and coordination, improving future employment opportunities for those engaged.
Census data forms the backbone of policymaking, providing micro-level insights on housing, amenities, demography, religion, Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST) population, language, literacy, economic activity, migration and fertility. The exercise is conducted under the Census Act, 1948 and Census Rules, 1990.
(With ANI inputs)
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