States directed to carry out real-time data corrections in Digital Census 2027

The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) has instructed all states to monitor the progress of data collection in real-time during the census phase of Census 2027. This will enable authorities to identify data quality issues and take timely corrective measures. According to a report by The Hindu, such immediate corrections were not possible previously as earlier censuses were conducted on paper, but the 2027 census will use digital data collection for the first time.

In a letter sent on 30 October to the Chief Secretaries of all states and Directors of Census Operations (DCO), RG&CCI Mrityunjay Kumar Narayana stated that the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) will serve as the primary platform for this process. This system will be used for planning, supervision, training, management, appointment of field functionaries, and grievance redressal.

He added in the letter that information available through CMMS will be reviewed regularly to identify factors such as lagging areas, operational bottlenecks, coverage gaps, appointment-related issues, lack of training, and data quality, which could adversely affect the census. Timely corrective actions, supervisory interventions, and effective coordination at the administrative level will be made possible through CMMS reports and monitoring tools.

For this second phase of the census, the door-to-door data collection process will begin from 1 December in election-oriented states such as Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Goa. In Ladakh as well as the snowy regions of Jammu-Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh, this process was completed on 30 September. In the rest of the country, this campaign will commence from 25 January, 2027.

During this phase, enumerators will ask 40 questions, including 13 new questions to be asked for the first time. These new questions include caste other than Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, religion, place and date of birth of parents, number of bank accounts, spouse's name, nationality, digital literacy, permanent residential address, COVID-19 vaccination site, passport number, availability of driving license, as well as mobile, Aadhaar, and Water ID numbers (if available).

The Hindu reported on 4 June that during the first houselisting operations of the census, enumerators in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan were asked to revisit houses to correct data discrepancies regarding matters such as open defecation and electricity or cooking gas connections.

Approximately 34 lakh enumerators will be deployed across the country, most of whom will be government school teachers. They will be assigned Enumeration Blocks (EBs), with each block containing approximately 700 to 800 people. The RG&CCI clarified in the letter that special attention should be paid not only to the progress of blocks but also to the performance of field functionaries, completion of supervisory checks, coverage of houses and population, pending field activities, and data quality. The monitoring framework will be used not just to track progress, but also to predict potential risks and take preventive measures in advance.