New Delhi [India], July 29 : The central government has not decided to update the National Population Register, the Ministry of Home Affairs told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
"No decision has been taken to update the National Population Register. The intent to conduct the census has been notified. The period of conducting the house listing and housing census will be notified in due course," said Minister of State (MoS) Home Nityanand Rai in a written reply on the census.
The Home Ministry also informed the House that the Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases, with the housing census in the first phase and population enumeration, demographics and caste census in the second phase.
MoS Nityanand Rai stated, "The Government of India has notified its intent to conduct the Census in the Gazette on June 16, 2025. The Census will be conducted in two phases. In phase one, i.e., house listing and housing census, the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected."
"Subsequently, in the second phase, i.e., population enumeration, the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected. In the census, caste enumeration will also be done," MoS Rai said.
March 1, 2027, will be the reference date for the Census, while October 1, 2026, has been decided as the reference date for the Census in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, he said
"The reference date for the said census shall be 00.00 hours of the 1st day of March, 2027 (For UT of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be 00:00 hours of the 1st day of October, 2026)," MoS Rai stated.
"The estimated financial outlay for conducting the census is under finalisation," the reply added.
Earlier on July 22, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the Lok Sabha that the preparation for Census 2027 has started, and a two-day conference of Directors of Census Operations was held in this regard at the beginning of the month.
The two-day conference was held on July 3-4 in New Delhi, and it was attended by Directors of Census Operations, senior officers from Directorates of Census Operations and officers from the Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India.
The conference featured discussion on the roadmap of the Census and its related activities such as finalisation of frame of administrative units, collection of data through mobile apps, management and monitoring of census activities through the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal, self-enumeration, training of census functionaries, etc.