The Registrar General of India (RGI) has started securing and archiving physical and digital records collected by millions of enumerators over the past two months, during the first phase of the 2027 census exercise – House List Operations (HLO) – in 19 states and five union territories, people familiar with the development said on Saturday.
Detailed instructions were recently issued to census officials, with information on safe keeping and preservation of work schedules, compiled maps, sketches, partially and fully filled forms, and other relevant documents, officials said.
The Directorate of Census Officers (DCOs) across the country have also informed all officials that the data collected is “confidential,” as outlined in Section 15 of the Census Act.
Officials said the instructions included specific directions. “The officers in charge have been asked to collect partially filled tables, completed tables, worksheets and two copies of schematic drawings of each HLB (House List Block) from every counter,” said an official, citing an instruction.
“They have been asked to upload the maps on the Population Census Management and Monitoring System portal. One copy should be sent to the district coordination offices, while another copy should be kept by the responsible officials for the second phase of the 2027 Census,” a senior official said.
Officials have also been directed to ensure that boxes containing documents are properly labeled and that the correct boxes are collected by the postal department.
The instructions added that all enumerators, supervisors and other employees will receive their honors after all district coordination offices obtain all census materials.
The census is conducted in two stages – HLO and Population Enumeration (PE). The HLO records the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household and is conducted from April to September 2026, while the PE exercise will start from February 2027 and covers demographic, socio-economic and cultural details, including caste data.
As of now, there are 19 states – Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand – and 5 regional states – Andaman and Nicobar. The islands of Chandigarh, Delhi, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep have completed the first phase.
The census is being conducted using digital tools for the first time. A custom mobile app for the data collection process has been developed for use alongside the traditional door-to-door census process.
The census was originally scheduled to take place in 2021, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to include the caste census was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 30 last year.
While they expect to finish collecting data by March 1, 2027, it will take two to three years to publish and compare the results, officials said.
