MHA sets 2027 for census operation, caste enumeration
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 16 2025: Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has notified that the country's population census will be conducted in 2027, formally putting an end to speculations about the fate of the postponed 2021 enumeration.

A gazette notification issued on Monday by the Office of the Registrar General, India, declared that the census will be taken during 2027, with the reference date set at 00:00 hours of March 1, 2027.For the Union Territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date has been fixed at 00:00 hours of October 1, 2026.The announcement came after a series of delays that pushed back what was to be India's 16th decadal census.

Initially planned between April 2020 and February 2021, the enumeration exercise was first disrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made door-to-door data collection a major health risk.

The disruption, compounded by the nationwide lockdowns and the massive mobilisation required for the census operation, made it impossible for the authorities to proceed with the schedule.

In Manipur, many have been demanding a fresh and credible census before any delimitation exercise is carried out in the state.

Several prominent civil society organisations (CSOs) have expressed strong opposition to any delimitation process, which is based on the 2001 Census data.

The organisations argue that the data from 2001 is fundamentally flawed and grossly misrepresents the actual demographic distribution in the state.

The CSOs have persistently flagged "abnormal" and "statistically improbable" population growth rates recorded in certain sub-divisions of the hill districts.

These growth rates cannot be justified by natural population increase and point to either large-scale illegal immigration or deliberate data manipulation.

They expressed suspicions that the inflated figures are largely due to undocumented immigrants from neighbouring Myanmar, whose entry may have gone unchecked in the past decades.

Using such data would lead to an unjust redistribution of assembly constituencies, possibly reducing representation in the valley areas while increasing it in certain hill regions.

The CSOs warned that this would disrupt the fragile demographic balance and pose a threat to proportional representation and the democratic structure of the state.

They contended that delimiting constituencies based on questionable data could worsen the already vulnerable social and ethnic landscape in Manipur.

The state has been marred by ongoing ethnic tensions and violent conflicts since last year, and CSOs argued that proceeding with a sensitive and politically consequential process like delimitation without reliable data would deepen mistrust and spark further unrest.

The opposition against delimitation got a fresh momentum when the Supreme Court directed the Centre to complete delimitation exercises in some states within three months.

The organisations have called for the suspension of the delimitation process until a new census is completed and the NRC is updated.

They asserted that only a fresh, transparent and verifiable enumeration can provide a legitimate basis for redrawing electoral boundaries.

They also maintained that this approach will restore public confidence and ensure political stability in the long term.

With the Centre officially committing to the 2027 census, pressure is now likely to mount on the government to ensure accuracy, transparency and accountability in the enumeration process as local concerns over demographic accuracy remain a highly sensitive matter.

The notification for conducting India's 16th census which will include caste enumeration came 16 years after the last census in 2011.The massive exercise, which is expected to cost the government over Rs 13,000 crore to give population-related data from across the country, will be conducted by about 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh census functionaries armed with digital devices.

Citizens will answer around three dozen questions ranging from whether they use a telephone, internet connection and the likes; their vehicles, the cereals they consume, water source, house type, whether the head of the household is a woman, a Scheduled Caste (SC) or a Scheduled Tribe (ST).

Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the preparation for the census with Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, and other senior officials in New Delhi on Sunday.

According to Article 246 of the Constitution, the census is a subject listed at 69 in the Union List in the Seventh Schedule.

The census is the primary source of data collection from every section of the society and a decennial activity.

In the upcoming census, caste enumeration will also be done, the first such exercise since Independence.

The last comprehensive caste-based count was done by the Britishers between 1881 and 1931.Caste was excluded from all census operations conducted since Independence.

The decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30 .

"Considering all these circumstances, and to ensure that our social fabric does not come under political pressure, it has been decided that caste enumeration should be included in the main census instead of being conducted as a separate survey," an official statement had said.

In 2010, then prime minister Manmohan Singh had assured the Lok Sabha that the matter of caste census would be considered in the cabinet.

A group of ministers was formed to deliberate on this subject and majority of the political parties recommended conducting a caste census.

However, the previous Congress-led government opted for a survey instead of a caste census, known as the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC).

The SECC conducted in 2011 under the UPA government did collect caste data but it was never fully published or utilised.

Bihar and Telangana have conducted caste surveys in the last three years.

While some states have conducted surveys to enumerate castes, these surveys have varied in transparency and intent, with some conducted purely from a "political angle, creating doubts in society", the government had said.

In the upcoming exercise, the provision of self-enumeration will also be made available to the people.

The two-phased census will start with the first step of house-listing operation (HLO) in which the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected.

This will be followed by the second phase of population enumeration in which the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be gathered.

Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage.

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