India completes digital mapping of 24.25 lakh house listing blocks for Census 2027

The Government of India has completed the largest digital exercise to date for Census 2027. According to a report by Dainik Bhaskar, digital mapping of 24.25 lakh House Listing Blocks (HLB) across the country has been carried out using a special software. Through this process, digital addresses for every village, mohalla, and slum in the country have been prepared. Under this arrangement, each block will include approximately 150 to 200 houses, with about 800 people residing in one block.

Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan provided this important information in a letter sent to all states and union territories. He stated that large-scale digital mapping was conducted during the house-listing phase, resulting in a comprehensive geospatial framework across the country. The 'Census Management and Monitoring System' (CMMS) application was used for this operation. This is a specialized software designed to monitor the census in near real-time.

The census process will be carried out in two phases. The first phase includes house-listing and the housing census. According to the Dainik Bhaskar report, this first phase has been completed in all states and union territories except Manipur. The second phase will involve population enumeration. Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan clarified that certain mapping activities are necessary before starting the census to ensure complete geographical coverage of populated areas within the enumeration blocks. This will eliminate the risk of any area being missed or any single area being counted twice.

The census schedule has been kept different for various regions. In the snowy and non-synchronous areas of Ladakh, Jammu-Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, the enumeration process was completed between September 1 and 30. In other areas, excluding the snowy regions of Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand, the census will be conducted from December 1, 2026, to January 4, 2027. This specific period has been decided keeping in view the assembly elections to be held in some states. In all remaining parts of the country, the census will begin on January 25, 2027, and continue until February 28, 2027.

Three main steps will be followed in this census process. First, citizens may fill in their information online if they wish, known as the self-enumeration option. Second, a census employee will visit homes in person to collect information. In the third phase, there will be a 5-day revision round to ensure that no individual is left out of the count. For this entire process, the Registrar General of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued orders under Section 3 of the Census Act 1948. Approximately 30 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed for this task, who will collect data using tablets and mobile apps.

Census 2027 will be India's first fully digital census. All data will be recorded through digital means. This legal process will be carried out under the Census Act 1948 and Census Rules 1990. According to the Central Government, personal information provided by the people will be kept strictly confidential. As per Section 15 of the Census Act, this information cannot be made public, cannot be provided under RTI, and cannot be used as evidence in any court.

This census was previously scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the Corona pandemic. The Central Government has approved a budget of ₹11,718.24 crore for Census 2027. This process will be carried out across the country with central coordination, with state governments and union territory administrations assisting in implementation. In this census, questions regarding caste will be asked after 95 years; however, this process will not currently take place in 5 election-bound states including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, while in the rest of the country, this information will be collected between January 25 and February 28.

One census employee will handle the responsibility of one block, and this block will further become the census block where the actual enumeration will take place. In this manner, by digitally mapping every small piece of the country, an effort has been made to make the census more accurate and faster.