Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Mann Ki Baat radio address on Sunday to urge citizens to take part in Census 2027, saying the first phase is nearly complete with data for more than 32 crore families recorded and over 2.6 crore people self-enumerating by mobile.
- The government’s self-enumeration portal lets users log in with a mobile number, fill household details in about 15–20 minutes, needs no document uploads and issues a unique ID for later verification by a census enumerator.
- The digital option is available in 16 languages to widen access and the census team reports work continuing in remote and snow-bound areas such as Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand.
- Modi highlighted local examples of the rollout in Uttarakhand, including Mana village where 83-year-old Purnima Rawat registered and a homestay owner, Hardev Singh Rana, who entered his family’s details online, to show the system’s ease of use.
- Census 2027 is India’s first fully digital decennial census, conducted in two phases with house-listing completed in April–September 2026 and population enumeration scheduled for February 2027 after the exercise was delayed from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.