India Unveils First-Ever Digital Census: Phase I to Launch April 1

NEW DELHI — Registrar General Mritunjay Kumar Narayan announced on Monday that India’s 2027 Census, the 16th in the nation's history, will officially commence its first phase on April 1, 2026. This  marks the first time the census will be conducted entirely through digital means, introducing a self-enumeration option alongside traditional door-to-door data collection.

The initial phase, focusing on House Listing and Housing, will begin with a 15-day self-enumeration window from April 1 to April 15 in select regions, including Goa, Karnataka, Odisha, and Delhi’s NDMC. Residents in these areas can securely submit their information online in 16 languages via a dedicated web portal before enumerators begin field visits on April 16. Other states, such as Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, are scheduled to follow later in the month.

To execute this massive undertaking, the Union Government has allocated ₹11,718.24 crore and mobilized over 3 million officials. Enumerators will utilize a specialized mobile app to record data in real-time, while the second phase in February 2027 will expand to include demographic details and, for the first time, a caste-based enumeration. Authorities have emphasized that robust protocols are in place to ensure the total security and privacy of all digital data collected during the process.

The ministry informed, “For self-enumeration, respondents can log into the SE portal using their mobile number and other basic details, and complete the Census schedule at their convenience. Upon successful submission, a unique Self-Enumeration ID (SE ID) will be generated which is to be shared with the enumerator during the field visit. Self-Enumeration option provides flexibility to fill the information at one's own convenience before the enumerator's visit. While enumerators will continue to make house to house enumeration in their allocated blocks as in the previous Censuses, Self-enumeration is an additional facility given this time to respondents.”

They further informed, "A Pre-test of first phase of Census (HLO) i.e. a full rehearsal of the entire census methodology including the appointment and trainings of the census field functionaries and other officers/officials of state, questionnaire, relevant apps and portals and all other related activities from data collection to data processing was conducted in all States/UTs in November, 2025 in about 5000 blocks.

All the administrative units have been frozen for the period 01.01.2026 to 31.03.2027. Census 2027 will be conducted in 36 States/UTs, 7,092 sub-districts, 5,128 Statutory towns, 4,580 Census towns and around 6,39,902 villages, as on 01.01.2026."

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