The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an important notification regarding the 2026–27 census, officially commencing preparations for the country's largest administrative process. According to this notification, the first phase of the census will begin on April 1, 2026, and the entire process will continue until February 28, 2027. The census, which was postponed in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will now be conducted under new regulations.
The census will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a list of houses and house enumeration will be done, while in the second phase, the actual counting of the population will take place. The process of listing and enumerating houses will be carried out from April 1 to September 30, 2026. Each state and union territory has been given a period of 30 days to complete this work. Notably, this time citizens will also be provided with the option of 'Self Enumeration'. This facility will be started on the census app or portal 15 days before the door-to-door survey begins.
This census will be the first fully digital census in India. Information will be collected through a mobile app instead of the pen-paper method. The government claims this will increase accuracy and reduce errors. A dedicated digital portal has been developed for data monitoring and management. With the new system 'CaaS – Census as a Service', the necessary data will be available to various government ministries at a click.
The government has approved a budget of more than 11,718 crore rupees for this ambitious initiative. About 3 million employees will work in the field during this process, and it is considered one of the largest administrative initiatives in the world. This census will include caste-related information along with the population count, which is considered a major change.
The time of midnight on March 1, 2027, has been set as the reference time for the final population figures. However, there may be some changes in the schedule for snow-covered and remote areas like Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. A special monitoring portal named 'CMMS' has been created to oversee the entire process, allowing the progress of the census to be viewed in real-time. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also clarified that strict measures have been taken for data security due to the digital format.