SRINAGAR: The Government of India has decided to conduct the 2027 Population Census in two phases, with caste enumeration to be carried out concurrently. According to official sources, the reference date for the Census will be 00:00 hours of March 1, 2027, for most parts of the country. However, for the snow-bound and non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00:00 hours of October 1, 2026.
A formal notification declaring the intent to conduct the Census with these reference dates is expected to be published in the official gazette on June 16, 2025, in accordance with Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948.
The upcoming Census will be the first since 2011. The decennial 2021 Census, which was also planned to be conducted in two phases with similar timelines—April to September 2020 for house listing and February 2021 for population enumeration—had to be indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite full preparedness, the fieldwork was halted just before its scheduled commencement on April 1, 2020.
The 2011 Census was conducted in two distinct phases: house listing operations from April to September 2010, and population enumeration from February 9 to 28, 2011. For the snow-bound regions, including parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the enumeration was done earlier between September 11 and 30, 2010, using October 1, 2010 as the reference date.
The inclusion of caste enumeration this time marks a significant shift in the Census exercise and is expected to provide valuable insights for policy-making and social welfare planning.
