Overview
- Self-enumeration opened in Ladakh and notified snow-bound areas on Monday, Aug 17 and will run through Aug 31, followed by door-to-door population enumeration from Sept 1 to Sept 30 with Ladakh’s reference date set at 00:00 hours on Oct 1, 2026.
- The Registrar General and Census Commissioner notified a 40-question household schedule on Aug 14 that adds 13 new fields to the 2011 form, notably caste plus parental particulars, COVID‑19 vaccination place and identity/document items such as Aadhaar, voter ID, passport and mobile number.
- Caste will be collected as declared by respondents with SC/ST selectable from a drop-down and all other caste names entered in an open text field, a method critics say risks inconsistent entries based on past exercises.
- Census 2027 is being run as India’s first fully digital census with a geo‑fenced self-enumeration portal and mobile-app based field verification, supported by an approved outlay of about Rs 11,718 crore.
- Officials say data are protected under the Census Act and ID numbers are to be given only 'if available', while opposition figures have raised concerns about overlap with NPR-style questions and about data quality from open-entry caste responses.