Caste Census Notification: First Phase To Start In Ladakh, J&K, 2 States In October 2026; Rest From March 2027

Over a month after confirming that an enumeration of the various castes and sub-castes in the country would take place, the Central Government on Monday declared that a census of the population of India shall be taken during the year 2027.

Issuing a gazette notification, the Centre assured that the census would begin in the union territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, as well as Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, from midnight on October 1, 2026, while counting for the rest of the country would begin from midnight on March 1, 2027.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah today reviewed the census prep with the Home Secretary, the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India and other senior officials.

It has been announced that, in each state, the census will be conducted in two phases. While the first phase will focus on collecting information on the House Listing Operation, or HLO, information about the housing conditions, assets, and amenities of each household, the second phase will be about Population Enumeration (PE), demographic, socio-economic, and cultural details of every person in each household. Information about an individual's caste will be collected in this phase.

The government had, on April 30, confirmed that an enumeration of the various castes and sub-castes in the country, and the number of people in each, will be part of the next census.

On June 7, the Centre announced that the Population Census 2027 would be conducted in two phases, and the exercise would include caste enumeration this time.

The last Census was conducted in 2011 was also carried out in two phases.

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs in a statement said, "The reference date for Population Census - 2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2027.

"For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2026," the ministry added in the statement.

"The notification for the intent of conducting the Population Census with these reference dates will be published in the official gazette "tentatively on 16.06.2025, as per provision of section 3 of Census Act 1948", it said.

The decision to include caste enumeration in the census - a demand pressed fiercely by the opposition - was announced months before a critical election in Bihar, over 63 per cent of the population of which comes from Extremely Backward or Backwards classes.

The government has clarified that caste, and not class, will be taken into consideration during the Census. Therefore, each person will have to mention their caste and religion.