India’s upcoming Census will embrace digital technology with a dedicated web portal for self-enumeration, available during both Houselisting and Population Enumeration phases. Enumerators will utilize mobile applications for data collection, ensuring efficient and secure transmission to a central server. The census will enumerate castes and adhere to strict data security measures, with key dates set for 2026 and 2027.

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The Census authority on Monday announced that it has allowed self-anumeration for Census 2027 through a dedicated web portal.The government will launch a special dedicated web portal for self-enumeration during the upcoming Census, which will be available for both phases of the national enumeration exercise, officials said Monday.Indian government’s Digital Census initiative is a transformational step towards modernising the Census process. In the country’s first digital census, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data.Enumerators will collect the data of citizens using mobile applications on their Android and Apple phones, they said.Caste of household members will be enumerated in ensuing Census.It will also be the first time in the country that citizens will get a chance to self-enumerate through a dedicated web portal which will be available for both the phases of Census – Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO) and Population Enumeration Phase 1 of the Census, Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO), will start from April 2026, followed by phase 2 starting on February 1, 2027 in which Population Enumeration (PE) will be conducted.”Digital Census initiative is a transformational step towards modernising the Census process. For the first time, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data,” an official told PTI.Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage.Reference date for the Census 2027 will be 00:00 hrs of March 1, 2027 and 00:00 hrs of October 1, 2026 for Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir and snowbound non-synchronous areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.It will be the 16th Census since start of the exercise in the country and 8th after Independence. A gazette notification was issued on June 16 for the same.The Registrar General of India has put in place a three-tier focused and need-based training structure for each phase – national trainer, master trainer and field trainer.The field trainers will train around 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors for this massive national-level exercise.The RGI has told states and Union Territories to make any proposed changes in the boundaries of administrative units before December 31, when they will be considered final for the Census exercise.Further, the states & UTs have been requested not to make changes in administrative boundaries between 1st January, 2026 to 31st March, 2027.In a letter to all states and Union Territories, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan had said that for the Census, all villages and towns are divided into uniform enumeration blocks and for each block, an enumerator is assigned to avoid any miss or repetition during the population count.According to norms, the Census can be conducted only three months after the freezing of boundary limits of administrative units such as districts, sub-districts, tehsils, talukas and police stations.Census 2027 will have a focused publicity campaign for nationwide awareness, inclusive participation, last-mile engagement and support for field operations. It’ll emphasize on sharing accurate, authentic & timely information ensuring cohesive & effective outreach effort.Narayan had said that from April 1, 2026, the Houselisting Operation, the appointment of supervisors and enumerators and the work division among them will be done, and on February 1, 2027, the Census of the population will begin.