New Delhi: On Wednesday, the federal government announced that the Population Census2027 will be carried out in two stages and will include a count of castes. Opposition groups accused the government of postponing the nationwide census exercise.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs, the census will use various reference dates based on location, taking into account logistical and climatic concerns.
According to the statement, it has been agreed to conduct Population Census2027 in two stages, together with the enumeration of castes.
In response to the declaration, Congress claimed that the government was further delaying the already late census. DMK claimed that the census would be conducted after the planned demarcation and that there was a plot to cut Tamil Nadu's Parliamentary representation.
According to the MHA statement, the reference date for the Population Census2027 will be 00:00 hours on March 1, 2027, for most of the country.
However, for the Union Territory of Ladakh, as well as the nonsynchronous snowbound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00:00 hours on October 1, 2026.
The government has also stated that a notice of intent to undertake the census, following the abovementioned schedule, will be published in the Official Gazette on June 16, 2025. This will be done under Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948, which defines the legal basis for India's decennial census activity. The census, which was set for 2021, was postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic. Census 2027 is expected to be one of the most extensive data collection efforts ever performed by the Indian government.
Census of India is conducted in accordance with the Census Act, 1948, and the Census Rules, 1990. The last Census of India was performed in two phases in 2011: I Phase - House Listing (HLO) (1 April to 30 September 2010) and II Phase - Population Enumeration (PE) (February 9 to February 28, 2011) with reference date 00:00 hours on the first day of March 2011, with the exception of snowbound nonsynchronous regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh, where it was conducted from September 11 to 30, 2010, with reference date 00:00 hours on the first day of October 2010.
Census 2021 was also planned to be carried out in two phases, with phase I taking place between April and September 2020 and the second phase taking place in February 2021. All preparations for the first phase of the Census to be undertaken in 2021 were completed, and field work was scheduled to begin in some States/UTs on April 1, 2020. However, the census operation was halted owing to the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the country.
According to Congressman Jairam Ramesh, there is no justification to postpone the Census, which was scheduled to be held in 2021, for another 23 months.
"The Modi Government is only capable of making headlines, not meeting deadlines," he said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin stated that the Indian Constitution stipulates that delimitation must occur following the first census after 2026.
"The BJP has now postponed the Census to 2027, indicating their strategy to diminish Tamil Nadu's parliamentary representation. I had cautioned about this. "It is now unfolding," he stated in a post on X.
He also criticized AIADMK chairman Edappadi K. Palaniswami.
"By siding with the BJP, Palaniswami is not only silent but also complicit in this betrayal. It is now clear that he has submitted to Delhi's rule. The people of Tamil Nadu are united in their demand for a Fair Delimitation. We want explicit answers from the Union Government," he stated.
