Centre advances Census 2027 in four poll-bound States, defers it in Manipur

The Union government on Saturday (September 5, 2026) announced that the Population Enumeration phase of Census 2027 will be held earlier than planned in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa — all of which are due for Assembly elections early next year. The exercise in these States will now run from November 16, 2026, to January 4, 2027, instead of the nationwide schedule of February 2027. A revisional round will follow from January 5 to January 9, 2027.

Residents of these four States will have the option to self-enumerate through a dedicated portal between November 16 and November 30, 2026, before the door-to-door survey begins on December 1. The reference date for the census in these States has been fixed at midnight of January 5, 2027, while for the rest of the country it remains March 1. For Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, where enumeration is already underway, the reference date is October 1, 2026.

The second phase of Census 2027 will include 40 questions, with an open-ended field for recording caste details. Respondents may choose not to disclose their caste or state that they do not belong to any caste. This marks the first time since Independence that caste, other than Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, will be enumerated. Compared to the 2011 Census, at least 13 new questions have been added, covering spouse's name, nationality, parents' particulars, digital literacy, permanent address, COVID-19 vaccination location, number of bank accounts, passport number, driving licence, and mobile, Aadhaar and voter ID numbers, if available.

Most enumerators are government school teachers, who will also be deployed for election duty.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh criticised the move, calling it "shoddy planning" and alleging "nefarious political calculations." He also said the caste question is "deliberately very poorly designed" and would render the exercise meaningless, noting that the Leaders of Opposition in both Houses had written to the Prime Minister on August 20, 2026, suggesting improvements based on the Bihar and Telangana questionnaire models.

Meanwhile, a separate notification has deferred the Census in Manipur indefinitely. The first phase — the House Listing and Housing Census — was scheduled from September 1 to 30, but training of enumerators was halted amid protests. Civil society groups from the Meitei and Naga communities have demanded that a National Register of Citizens be compiled first, citing concerns that the next delimitation exercise could use Census data in a way that disadvantages certain communities. The Home Minister and the Chief Minister of Manipur met on August 30, after which the first phase was deferred.