Census may begin soon, likely to be wrapped up in 2026
In March, 2025, the Union home ministry had informed a parliamentary standing committee that the preparatory activities for the exercise have been completed.
The decadal census is likely to begin soon with officials hoping to complete it by the end of 2026, people familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
To be sure, the government has not issued a formal timeline or deadline for completing the already delayed census 2021.
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“It may begin soon as whether to include or not the caste enumeration was only delaying the entire exercise,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.
The decision to include caste in the census also means that the number of questions in the Census 2021 to collect information from every household during the house listing and house census exercise might increase to 32, from 31 currently.
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In March this year, the Union home ministry had informed a parliamentary standing committee that the preparatory activities for the decadal exercise have been completed. The ministry was clarifying the reasons for reduced allocation from ₹1,309 crore in 2024-25 to ₹574 crore in 2025-26 for the Census.
“Many of the census related preparatory activities have been completed and technological updation is in progress,” the ministry told the committee. “Therefore, as and when census exercise will be undertaken, additional funds will be sought as per the year-wise requirement,” it added.
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Union home minister Amit Shah also said on multiple occasions that the census will be carried out. Originally, the Centre decided in 2019 to carry out Census 2021, for which it approved a budget of ₹8,754.23 crore and for updating the NPR (national population register) a budget of ₹3,941.35 crore. This meant that the entire exercise was likely to cost around ₹12,000 crore.
The census – the 16th such exercise since the British rule era - was to originally take place in 2020-21 but was first delayed due to Covid-19.
The first synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every 10 years. It is the biggest source of information on demographic, socioeconomic and other parameters of the entire population of India. This data is used for planning and policymaking and provides valuable inputs about the impact of government policies. The data is also used to demarcate constituencies and allocate state-wise representation in Parliament.
According to officials, Census 2021 will also be the first digital census. A mobile app for collection of data and a census portal for management and monitoring of various census-related activities has already been developed.
