Census progressed in four poll-bound states, delayed in Manipur

The Union government on Saturday (September 5, 2026) advanced the population enumeration phase of the 2027 census in the poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa, and scheduled the exercise from November 16, 2026 to January 4, 2027. It postponed the Manipur census “until further notice”.

The second phase of Census 2027 will have 40 questions and will include an open field for recording caste details. Respondents will also have the option of either not disclosing their caste or declaring that they do not belong to any caste. This is the first time that a caste other than Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe will be listed in Independent India.

There are at least 13 new questions compared to the 2011 census. The questions introduced are about spouse’s name, nationality, father’s and mother’s details, digital literacy, residential address, place of vaccination against Covid-19, number of bank accounts, passport number, availability of driving license and mobile phone, Aadhaar and voter ID numbers if available.

Most of the enumerators are government school teachers who will also be deployed for election duty.

According to a notification issued under the Census Act, 1948, by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI), the census in four states will be followed by a revision round from January 5 to January 9, 2027. Residents of these states will have the option of self-enumeration through a dedicated portal from November 32 to 16 and from November 32 to 16. survey that will begin on December 1.

The government has set 00:00 hours as 5 January 2027 as the reference date for the census in these states and the region, while the reference date for the rest of the country is 1 March. The reference date for Ladakh and the snow-covered regions of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, where the population census is being conducted, 26, 1 October is the census.

The first notification for Census 2027 was issued on 16 June 2025, which said that the next census would be conducted in February 2027, except for Ladakh and the snow-covered areas of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, where both phases would be completed by 30 September.

“Poor planning”

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the new notification showed “poor planning” by the government.

“The population census that was supposed to be held in February 2027 as part of the Census 2027 exercise (due in 2021) has been advanced in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa where elections are due early next year. This shows shoddy planning because it was known that these elections were happening.” Ramesh said.

“Question No. 10, which is caste-based, is deliberately very poorly designed and will render the entire caste enumeration exercise meaningless. LoP-LS and LoP-RS wrote to PM on this issue on 20 August 2026. It is clear that their pleas for mid-course correction and their constructive suggestions to follow the Bihar and Telangana model have been completely ignored.”

Meanwhile, another notification was issued for Manipur, postponing the census indefinitely.

A large section of civil society groups from the Meitei and Naga communities have demanded that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) be compiled first before the census begins in the ethnic violence-hit state.

Although the census is not a citizenship exercise and counts all individuals regardless of nationality, there is concern among a section of people in the northeastern state that the next delimitation exercise to redraw constituency boundaries may take into account the latest census data in a way that could disadvantage the Meiteis and other small tribal communities.

Manipur has three main communities – Meitei, Naga and Kuki-Zo tribes. Following a meeting between Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Y. Khemchand Singh on August 30 in Delhi, the first phase of the census in the state was postponed.

The first phase of Census 2027, the House and Apartment Census (HLO), was scheduled for September 1-30 in Manipur, but the training of enumerators, mostly government school teachers, was halted due to protests by civil society groups.

Published – 05 Sep 2026 22:23 IST