The Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that the government has not taken any decision to update the National Population Register, reported ANI.
The ministry said that the Lok Sabha that the Census 2027 will be carried out in two phases, the first phase will cover the housing census, while the second phase will include population enumeration, demographic details, and the caste census, reported ANI.
“No decision has been taken to update the National Population Register. The intent to conduct the census has been notified. The period of conducting the house listing and housing census will be notified in due course,” said Minister of State (MoS) Home Nityanand Rai in a written reply on the census.
Rai stated, “The Government of India has notified its intent to conduct the Census in the Gazette on June 16, 2025. The Census will be conducted in two phases. In phase one, i.e., house listing and housing census, the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected.”
“Subsequently, in the second phase, i.e., population enumeration, the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected. In the census, caste enumeration will also be done,” MoS Rai said.
“March 1, 2027, will be the reference date for the Census, while October 1, 2026, has been decided as the reference date for the Census in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” he said, reported ANI.
“The reference date for the said census shall be 00.00 hours of the 1st day of March, 2027 (For UT of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be 00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026),” MoS Rai stated.
“The estimated financial outlay for conducting the census is under finalisation,” the reply added.
On July 22, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha that preparations for Census 2027 have begun, and a two-day conference of Directors of Census Operations was held earlier this month to discuss the roadmap, reported ANI.
The two-day conference was held on July 3–4 in New Delhi and was attended by Directors of Census Operations, senior officials from various state Directorates of Census Operations, and officers from the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, as reported by ANI.
The conference included discussions on the roadmap for the upcoming Census and related activities, such as finalising the framework of administrative units, data collection via mobile apps, managing and monitoring census operations through the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal, enabling self-enumeration, and training of census functionaries.
(Inputs from ANI)