NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed preparations for India’s 16th Census, which will be conducted in 2027 with caste enumeration included for the first time. The exercise will be carried out in two phases using digital tools, with the official notification set to be published in the gazette on Monday.According to an official statement, the reference date for the census will be March 1, 2027, for most parts of the country, while for snow-bound regions such as Ladakh and certain areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, it will be October 1, 2026.The census will be conducted in two stages:

For the first time, the Census will be entirely digital, with data collected via mobile apps. Citizens will also have the option for self-enumeration. To manage the large-scale operation, the government will deploy nearly 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors along with 1.3 lakh census functionaries.Shah held a high-level meeting with Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, registrar general & census commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, and other senior officials to assess the logistics and readiness for the massive national exercise.This will be India’s 16th Census overall and the 8th since Independence, conducted after a gap of 16 years—the last being in 2011. The decadal 2021 Census was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Officials assured that strict data security protocols will be in place throughout the process, from collection to transmission and storage of information.