Cabinet nod for Census 2027; Rs 11,718 cr sanctioned, 30 lakh enumerators to be involved
New Delhi (PTI): The Union Cabinet on Friday approved Rs 11,718 crore for conducting the Census of India, 2027, which would include the caste enumeration for the first time.
Addressing a briefing, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal to conduct the Census which will be the first digital exercise.
Around 30 lakh enumerators would be involved in the entire exercise.
The 16th edition of the Census since Independence will also provide an option of self enumeration to the citizens.
The decadal exercise which was scheduled to take place in 2021 got postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the country.
The minister said the Census will be conducted in two phases -- house-listing and housing census from April to September, 2026; and population enumeration (PE) in February 2027.
For Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the PE exercise shall be conducted in September, 2026, the minister said.
"This will become the first-ever digital census," Vaishnaw told reporters.
Around 30 lakh enumerators will visit each and every household and canvass a separate questionnaire for houselisting and housing census and population enumeration. It will generate 1.02 crore human days of employment, the minister said.
Vaishnaw said the entire digital census system has been created as a very robust system and all personal data protection laws will be applicable. The census will collect the micro-level data of every individual and household and present a macro-level data, he added.
"Data of the micro-level will be collected from each household and a macro picture will be present. Individual data will be kept confidential while the macro-level data of the Census will be published," the minister said.
"All the Census functionaries will be paid a suitable honorarium for the work of the Census as they will be doing this work in addition to their regular duties," a government statement said.
The Census 2027 will also capture caste data electronically in the PE phase, Vaishnaw said.
In the first-ever digital Census, data will be collected using mobile applications that will be available for both Android and iOS versions.
Use of a mobile app for data collection and the central portal for monitoring purposes will ensure better quality data, Vaishnaw said.
Data dissemination will be much better and in a user-friendly way so that all queries on required parameters for policy-making will be available with a click of a button, he said.
"A dedicated portal, namely Census Management & Monitoring System (CMMS), has been developed for managing and monitoring the entire Census process on a real-time basis," a government statement said.
Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) will deliver data to ministries in a clean, machine-readable and actionable format, he said.
The largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world will be done using a mobile app for data collection and the central portal for monitoring purposes will ensure better quality data.
"The current endeavour would be to make available the coming Census data at the shortest possible time across the country. Efforts will also be made to disseminate Census results with more customised visualisation tools. Data sharing to all, up to the lowest administrative unit i.e. village/ ward level," the statement said.
Houselisting block (HLB) creator web map application will be another innovation for Census 2027 which will be used by the charge officers.
The statement said around 18,600 technical manpower will be engaged for about 550 days at the local levels which would imply that around 1.02 crore man-days employment would be generated.
"Further, the provision of technical manpower at the charge/ district/ state-level will also result in capacity-building as the nature of the job will be related to digital data handling, monitoring and coordination. This will also help in the future employment prospects of these persons," it said.
The provision of technical manpower at various levels will also result in capacity-building as the nature of the job will be related to digital data handling, monitoring and coordination.
"This will also help in the future employment prospects of these persons," the statement said.
The mammoth exercise is the biggest source of primary data at the village, town and ward-level providing micro-level data on various parameters including housing condition, amenities and assets, demography, religion, SC and ST, language, literacy and education, economic activity, migration and fertility.
The last comprehensive caste-based count was done by the Britishers between 1881 and 1931. Caste was excluded from all Census operations conducted since Independence.
The decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming Census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 30.
In 2010, then prime minister Manmohan Singh had assured the Lok Sabha that the matter of caste census would be considered in the cabinet.
However, the previous Congress-led government opted for a survey instead of a caste census, known as the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC).
The population of the country according to the Census 2011 was 1,210.19 million of which 623.72 million (51.54 per cent) were males and 586.46 million (48.46 per cent) were females.
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''NDA''s betrayal includes strangling MSMEs'' amid West Asia crisis, alleges Stalin at poll rally
Erode (Tamil Nadu) (PTI): DMK President, Chief Minister M K Stalin, on Thursday, alleged that the NDA's betrayals include 'strangling' the MSMEs during the ongoing West Asia crisis.
Addressing an election rally here, Stalin alleged AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami had no achievements to claim for his government during 2017-21; neither does PM Modi, who comes on "election tours" to Tamil Nadu.
Ridiculing the slow pace of work to build Madurai AIIMS, as that project was announced by the Centre about a decade ago, the CM said: "If they think they can claim an achievement, let them look at the Madurai AIIMS, being built brick by brick, one brick after the other. That is an achievement." Other than the "achievement" of building AIIMS for about 10 years, they had nothing to boast about at all, he sarcastically said.
"We have a list of their betrayals (of NDA). Shall I list them?" Stalin asked, and alleged that the denial to scrap NEET and declining of new Metro rail projects were betrayals. "Abolishing" MGNREGA, amending the Citizenship Act, and the enactment of 3-farm laws --which were later scrapped-- were also "betrayals," he said.
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He also listed other alleged "betrayals" of "failure to protect weavers" from US tariffs and crippling micro, small, and medium enterprises due to the West Asian war.
The Dravidian party chief, however, did not elaborate on either the weavers vis-à-vis the US tariff issue or the matter involving MSMEs.
Furthermore, the DMK chief slammed the "betrayal" of withholding education funds due to children in order to impose Hindi, not providing GST compensation and snatching away state rights.
Hence, Palaniswami and his party's ally BJP, are the very embodiment of "betrayals" and the NDA allies "stand in the dock" before the people of Tamil Nadu, having committed "betrayal after betrayal," Stalin claimed.
Hitting out at AIADMK chief for targeting the DMK regime over women's safety, at his Sivaganga rally on April 1, 2026, Stalin listed a slew of ongoing welfare schemes for the benefit of women, including fare-free bus and Rights payout of Rs 1,000 per month.
He said that law and order maintenance was good in Tamil Nadu, and women go for work boldly as they are safe, while industries troop to Tamil Nadu with investment. The efficiency of a government is measured by how swiftly action is taken, and criminals are punished when a crime occurs. From that perspective, it is under the Dravidian model government that charge sheets have been filed within 60 days in over 86 per cent of cases, the chief minister asserted.
The CM said: "This growth of Tamil Nadu irritates Palaniswami, the branch secretary of the BJP. Out of jealousy, he is spreading lies and rumours as the DMK does not allow him to win even one election."
He asked if Palaniswami had any locus standi to speak about women's safety and listed crimes against women reported during the AIADMK regime, including the sensational Pollachi sexual assault case and the sufferings of the victims.
"Did that outcry of Pollachi victims not shake Palaniswami's conscience? What kind of dramas did Palaniswami stage in the Pollachi case? First, he delayed filing the case... then, they let the accused escape. They publicly revealed the names of the victimised women and issued threats. However, it is the Dravidian model of governance that handled that case properly, secured life sentences for the criminals, and obtained a compensation of Rs 85 lakh for the victims," Stalin said.
The CM also listed cases, including one in which a woman police SP was the victim at the hands of a higher police official and the manner in which the conviction was secured. In fact, the CM said there was a long history of crimes against women during successive AIADMK regimes and the mega list includes the burning of three girl students in a bus in Dharmapuri and the acid attack on a woman IAS officer. It was the DMK regime that enacted laws/ amendments to ensure upto death penalty for crimes against women.
"Women's safety was a question mark under Palaniswami's rule. It is the Dravidian model government that protects women, enables them to go to colleges and workplaces with dignity, and stands as a true friend. Thinking that all these facts can be hidden by spreading fake news and slander, Palaniswami is now wandering in a fantasy castle, dreaming of bringing the BJP's NDA government to TN and plundering the state," the DMK chief alleged.
"While the DMK-led alliance was firmly bonded by ideology, the NDA was not so," Stalin said. He also alleged that in 2016, Amit Shah had termed the AIADMK cabinet as full of corrupt leaders.
The same corrupt group now stands with Amit Shah, the CM alleged.
Beginning with Palaniswami, who allegedly awarded tenders to a relative --Sambandhi-- about a dozen AIADMK ministers were involved in alleged scams like illegal sale of gutka and irregularities in award of tenders for local bodies, Stalin claimed.
Without directly naming NDA partners, AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran (for an alleged bribe several years ago to influence the Election Commission) and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss (alleged irregularities involving medical college admissions), Stalin said such people, "who should be in the dock, have come together to deceive the people". He ridiculed NDA's double engine mantra, termed it as 'dabba engine' and asserted that NDA will be routed in the Assembly polls.
