Long-pending census exercise to be held in 2 phases over next 3 yrs, will include caste data

The Print

3 days ago

According to a statement by the government, the reference date for Population Census 2027 will be 00:00 hours of 1 March, 2027.
The long pending exercise will be conducted after 14 years. The last was conducted in 2010.
New Delhi: In a major development, the Centre Wednesday announced that the population census exercise will be held in two phases along with the enumeration of castes, in the next three years.
For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of 1 October, 2026.
The notification with the above reference dates will be published in the official gazette tentatively on 16 June 2025, as per the provision of section 3 of Census Act 1948, the statement said.
According to a source in the government, the process of census begins with issuance of the notification.
'The notification of intent will be published in the official gazette on 16 June, 2025, tentatively. The second and final phase of the census will begin in February 2027 and conclude on 1 March, 2027,' the source said.
The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948, and the Census Rules, 1990.
The last Census of India was conducted in 2011 in two phases.
In phase I, house listing was done from 1 April to 30 September, 2010. In phase II, population enumeration was done on 9 February to 28 February 2011, with reference date 00:00 hours of 1 March 2011, except for snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh for which it was conducted during 11 to 30 September 2010 with reference date as 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2010.
Also Read: BrahminGenes Anuradha Tiwari has launched a war on caste census. 'A betrayal by Modi govt'
Enumeration of caste alongside enumeration of population
What is new in this exercise is also that the enumeration of caste will also take place alongside enumeration of population.
Caste was never included in any census since Independence. The Congress-led UPA government had, in 2011, enumerated caste data as part of its Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), but the figures were never made public.
The Modi-led NDA government had in 2021 ruled out a caste census. In a reply to Lok Sabha, the Centre had said that it had decided, as a matter of policy, not to enumerate caste-wise data beyond SCs and STs. In its affidavit submitted in the Supreme Court, the Centre had said that 'population Census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste' as 'the operational difficulties are so many that there is a grave danger that basic integrity of census data may be compromised and the fundamental population could itself get distorted'.
Since then, the BJP had maintained an ambiguous stance on the issue, often accusing the Congress of using the caste census demand to create societal divisions. But in April the government announced that caste enumeration will be part of the next census exercise.
A delay due to COVID-19
The 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. This, however, could not materialise.
'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 and UTs from 1 April, 2020. However, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic across the country, the census work was postponed,' the statement said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)