The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the proposal to conduct the Census of India 2027, allocating a budget of ₹11,718.24 crore for the massive exercise. This upcoming census is set to be a landmark event as it will be the first fully digital census and the first in independent India to officially enumerate caste.
A government statement released on December 12, 2025, confirmed that the “largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world” will be rolled out in two phases. Unlike the approval granted in 2019, the current statement notably does not mention a separate budgetary allocation for updating the National Population Register (NPR).
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First Digital Census and Caste Enumeration
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw termed the 2027 exercise as the “first-ever digital Census.” The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs had earlier decided on April 30 to include caste enumeration in the process. Recognizing the country’s social and demographic diversity, the government stated that caste data will be captured electronically during the second phase.
To modernise the process, the government has introduced the “Census-as-a-Service (CaaS)” initiative. This aims to provide data to ministries in a “clean, machine-readable and actionable format.” Data collection will utilize mobile applications available on both Android and iOS, alongside a dedicated portal named the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) for real-time tracking.
“Data dissemination will be much better and in a user friendly way so that all the queries on required parameters for policy making will be made available on the click of a button.” — Government Statement
Timeline and Phased Implementation
The Census will be executed in two distinct stages. The first phase, covering Houselisting and Housing Census, is scheduled from April to September 2026. This will be followed by the Population Enumeration phase in February 2027.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai clarified that the first phase will be conducted over a period of 30 days within the six-month window, based on the convenience of State and Union Territory governments.
Special provisions have been made for difficult terrains. In the Union Territory of Ladakh, and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the Population Enumeration will be advanced to September 2026.
Manpower and Employment
The logistical scale of the Census remains immense. Approximately 30 lakh field functionaries will be deployed, including enumerators, supervisors, and district officers. These roles will largely be filled by government officials and school teachers, who will receive an honorarium for the additional work.
The government estimates that around 18,600 technical staff will be engaged at the local level for about 550 days. This is expected to generate approximately 1.02 crore man-days of employment. The technical nature of the work, involving digital data handling, is intended to aid capacity building and future employment prospects for the staff involved.
NPR and Historical Context
The absence of a specific mention of the NPR in the latest statement stands in contrast to the 2019 Cabinet approval. At that time, ₹3,941.35 crore was approved specifically for updating the NPR, alongside ₹8,754.23 crore for the 2021 Census. The 2021 exercise was subsequently stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NPR, a database of residents, was first collected in 2010 and updated in 2015. While NPR data is maintained family-wise and can be shared with government agencies, the Census Act of 1948 strictly prohibits sharing individual census data, allowing only for aggregate data release.
Census 2027 will be the 16th Census in the country and the 8th since Independence. Another innovation introduced this year is the Houselisting Block (HLB) Creator web map application for Charge Officers, along with an option for public self-enumeration.