Overview
- The government formally notified the 40 questions for the population enumeration phase on Friday, August 14, confirming that caste beyond SC/ST will be recorded in an open column as declared by respondents.
- The schedule adds identification and administrative fields such as Aadhaar number, mobile number, voter ID, passport number, driving licence availability, and total number of bank accounts, plus place of Covid‑19 vaccination.
- Authorities authorised a short self‑enumeration window from August 17 to 31 before house‑to‑house visits and said the overall exercise will be phased and largely digital.
- Population enumeration will begin earlier in snow‑bound and non‑synchronous areas such as Ladakh, parts of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, though published reports differ on exact local start dates.
- The notification was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Census Act, 1948, following Cabinet approval and July pre‑tests and it sets the operational rules for the nationwide count due to reach the rest of India in early 2027.