Overview
- The Centre, which issued the household schedule on Friday, Aug 14, formally notified 40 questions for the Population Enumeration phase of Census 2027 that include an open-ended caste field.
- A short self-enumeration window runs from 17 to 31 August 2026 followed by house-to-house counts in Ladakh and designated snow-bound areas from 1 to 30 September 2026 with a revisional round from 1 to 5 October.
- Officials say enumerators will record caste as declared by respondents in a free-text column rather than from a preset list, a method trialed in July pre-tests across 16 states and UTs.
- The questionnaire expands identity and personal data collection to items such as Aadhaar, mobile and voter ID numbers, passport details, driving licence availability, bank account count and place of COVID-19 vaccination, while digital tools for Phase II have been developed.
- The two-phase, fully digital census was cleared by the Cabinet with about ₹11,718.24 crore approved and roughly ₹4,102 crore already released to states for training, manpower and tech support, a scale that will shape future policy targeting and raise practical and privacy questions during rollout.