The houselisting operations for the forthcoming Census will begin from April 1, 2026, marking the start of the first phase of the decennial exercise, the Registrar General of India has said.
In a letter to Chief Secretaries of States and Union Territories, Census Commissioner and Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said the Houselisting Operations and Housing Census shall begin on April 1, 2026.
Before that the appointment of supervisors, enumerators and work distribution among them shall be done with cooperation from states and district administration, it said.
The Census is a two-phase exercise — in phase one i.e. Houselisting Operation (HLO), the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected.
Subsequently, in the second phase i.e. Population Enumeration (PE), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected which is scheduled for February 1, 2027, according to the letter.
In the Census, Caste enumeration will also be done, a government statement had said.
For Census activities, over 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh Census functionaries would be deployed.
It is the 16th Census till now and the eighth after independence.
The forthcoming Census will be conducted through digital means using mobile applications. Provision of self-enumeration would also be made available to the people.
The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner had prepared around three dozen questions to be asked to the citizens.
The survey will ask households about ownership of items like phones, internet, vehicles (bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, car, jeep, van), and appliances (radio, TV, transistor) among others.
The citizens will also be asked about cereal consumption, sources of drinking water and lighting, type and access to latrines, wastewater disposal, bathing and kitchen facilities, fuel used for cooking and LPG/PNG connection.
Additional questions include the materials used for the floor, walls and roof of the house, its condition, number of residents, number of rooms, presence of married couples, and whether the household head is a female or belongs to a Scheduled Caste or Tribe.
Boundaries of administrative units to be frozen on Dec 31, 2025 for Census
The Centre has asked States and Union Territories to make any proposed changes in the boundaries of administrative units before December 31, when they will be considered final for the census exercise.
In a letter to all states and Union Territories, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan has said that for the Census, all villages and towns are divided into uniform enumeration blocks and for each block, an enumerator is assigned to avoid any miss or repetition during the population count.
According to norms, the Census can be conducted only three months after the freezing of boundary limits of administrative units such as districts, sub-districts, tehsils, talukas and police stations.
In his letter addressed to chief secretaries, Narayan asked them to direct all departments to make any proposed changes in the boundaries of municipal corporations, revenue villages, tehsils, sub-divisions or districts before December 31.
He asked the states and UTs to ensure that no changes should be made in the boundaries of administrative units between January 1, 2026, and March 31, 2027, during which Census exercise will take place.
Any changes in the existing boundaries must be intimated to Census Directorates in the states and Union Territories and Registrar General of India by December 31, 2025, it said.
“For Census 2027, boundaries of administrative units will be frozen on December 31, 2025,” the letter said.
To ensure a fair workload for enumerators, an administrative unit is divided into manageable sections for the Census called “blocks”.
A block is a clearly defined area within a village or town on a notional map for census purposes.
Published – June 29, 2025 03:38 pm IST
