Cabinet clears ₹11,718 crore for India’s first digital Census, set for 2026-27

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has cleared a budget of ₹11,718 crore for conducting Census 2027, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Friday. Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting, Vaishnaw confirmed the approval of the allocation for the upcoming decennial exercise. As per the government’s schedule, the census will be carried out in two stages. The first phase - house listing and housing census - will be conducted from April to September 2026. The second phase, involving population enumeration, is slated for February 2027. In snow-prone areas, however, the enumeration will be advanced to September 2026 due to harsh winter conditions.

Vaishnaw noted that this will be India’s first fully digital census, designed with strong data protection safeguards. Around 30 lakh personnel will be deployed for the exercise, which will also include caste-based enumeration. The government has assured that the provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act will be followed to secure citizens’ information. The upcoming census will allow residents to self-enumerate via a mobile app. Additionally, a new “Census as a Service” feature will enable government departments to access customised, on-demand data.