Cabinet Approves ₹11,718 Crore for India's First Digital Census in 2027, to Include Caste Enumeration
SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Ministry of Home Affairs | Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA)
The Union Cabinet approved the proposal for conducting the Census of India 2027, the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world, with a sanctioned cost of ₹11,718.24 crore. This will be the 16th census in India and the 8th since independence.
The Census will be conducted in two main phases:
Phase I: Houselisting and Housing Census – Scheduled from April to September 2026.
Phase II: Population Enumeration (PE) – Scheduled for February 2027. (Note: For snow-bound areas like Ladakh, PE will be held earlier in September 2026).
Key innovations and features include:
Digital-First Approach: This will be the first-ever digital Census in India, with data collected using mobile applications for both Android and iOS platforms.
Caste Enumeration: Following a decision by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) on April 30, 2025, the Census will include caste enumeration electronically in the Population Enumeration phase.
Public Participation: An option for self-enumeration will be provided to the public.
Data Management: A dedicated Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS) portal has been developed for real-time monitoring. Data dissemination will be improved through “Census-as-a-Service” (CaaS), delivering clean, machine-readable, and actionable data to ministries and up to the village/ward level.
Employment Generation: The exercise will generate around 1.02 crore man-days of employment, primarily by deploying 30 lakh field functionaries.
What is Census-as-a-Service (CaaS)? Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) is a new digital framework for data dissemination that will deliver Census results to government ministries and stakeholders in a clean, machine-readable, and actionable format, allowing them to access micro-level data for policy making.
Policy Relevance
The Census 2027 is a landmark decision with immense political and administrative implications. The inclusion of caste enumeration will provide fundamental, updated social data necessary for targeted socio-economic policies, reservations, and resource allocation. Furthermore, the transition to a digital-first census aims to improve data quality, expedite processing, and create a foundational data layer crucial for future digital governance and the implementation of statutory obligations like delimitation.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: Considering the sensitive and complex nature of the caste enumeration data, what robust legal and technical security framework will be established to prevent political misuse while ensuring the data’s integrity and confidentiality, in compliance with the DPDP Act?
Follow the full news here: Cabinet approves scheme of Conduct of Census of India 2027