Census has a date, will begin in October 2026

Over a month after the government approved caste enumeration in the population census, it has laid out the road map for the exercise, beginning October, 2026.

“It has been decided to conduct Population Census-2027 in two phases along with enumeration of castes,” an official statement said on Wednesday.

The first phase will be held in the hilly and snow bound areas of the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir and States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The second phase, beginning March 1, 2027, will cover the rest of the country.

“The notification for the intent of conducting the Population Census with the above reference dates will be published in the official gazette tentatively on June 16, 2025, as per provision of section 3 of Census Act 1948,” the statement said.

After the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) held in April gave its nod for a caste census, union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw had said at a press conference that the decision demonstrated the government’s commitment to the values and interests of a society and country. He also that some states had carried out caste enumeration from a political angle, while some have done it well, in an apparent reference to Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana. The Opposition, particularly Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, had been targeting the Narendra Modi government on the issue and promised to conduct a caste census if it came to power.

This will be the first census after 2011, which was also conducted in two phases. “Census 2021 was also proposed to be conducted in two phases in a similar manner with phase I during April-September 2020 and second phase in February 2021. All the preparations for the first phase of the Census to be conducted in 2021 were completed and field work was scheduled to begin in some States/UTs from April 1, 2020. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic across the country, the census work was postponed,” the government statement released to the media said.

The SC and ST lists are decided upon by Parliament, while Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are also categorised separately by state and UT governments.

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