NEW DELHI: Union MoS Nityanand Rai on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases across the country.According to the reply, the first phase will involve Houselisting and Housing Census, during which information on housing conditions, household particulars including the name and sex of the head of the household, as well as amenities and assets possessed by households will be collected. The sex of the head of household will be recorded under three categories: Male, Female and Transgender.
The second phase, i.e., Population Enumeration will collect information on each individual, with the detailed questionnaire to be notified later.The government said that enumerators will undertake house-to-house visits across the entire enumeration area to collect census data and ensure that no household is excluded. In addition, respondents will have the option of self-enumeration, allowing them to submit their data online. The data will be later verified by enumerators before final submission.To ensure data accuracy, the self-enumeration portal will include FAQs, tool tips and validation checks, while enumerators and supervisors will receive adequate training for census work. Validation rules have also been built into the mobile application used for data collection and information gathered by enumerators will be monitored and verified by supervisors.The government further stated that all suitable measures have been taken to ensure data security during mobile data collection, transmission and storage at the server level.Earlier, Union home minister Amit Shah launched four digital platforms and two mascots: Pragati and Vikas for India’s first fully digital census exercise. The tools include a self-enumeration portal, houselisting operations mobile application, houselisting block creator application and a census management and monitoring system portal, developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.The Census 2027 will be the world’s largest census exercise, with around 30 lakh enumerators and supervisors engaged in the data collection process. The first phase will be conducted between April and September 2026, while the second phase is expected in February 2027.
