Population count for Census 2027 begins today; 40 questions include caste query for first

(PTI)Between August 17 and 31, residents in these regions can fill their details online. After this, census enumerators, armed with 40 questions notified last week – including those on the respondent’s caste, parental details and identity documents – will launch a door-to-door exercise from.

The counting of the population for the rest of the country will take place in February next year. The census data will be recorded through a paper-less exercise, similar to the houselisting exercise, using a mobile app in snow-bound areas.

What Happened

The directorate of census operations hopes to first record the data of lieutenant governor VK Saxena, MP Hanifa Jan, chairman of the Kargil hill development council Mohhamad Jaffer Akhoon and chief secretary Ashish Kundra on Monday morning. The people of Ladakh are.

• The landmark population enumeration phase of the 2027 Census will kick off on Monday with self-enumeration in the Union Territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

• Officials involved in the Census 2027 exercise interact with residents during a door-to-door awareness campaign on self-enumeration, at Suri, in Birbhum district, West Bengal.

• The operation will cover the around 274,000 people in Ladakh across seven districts.

Key Details

The early census is particularly important for remote areas such as Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi-Bharmour in Chamba. Residents can complete the census online through the official self-enumeration portal from August 17 to August 31, 2026, after which they will receive a self-enumeration.

• In Jammu and Kashmir, the exercise will comprise about 8.81 million people across 16 districts, including Doda, Poonch and Kupwara.

• Challenges include villages in Zanskar with little road connectivity, Yingchen village in Leh comprising only 11 members from two families (seven hours by foot from the nearest hamlet), and Hanle village in Changthang, which.

• In Himachal Pradesh, the exercise will cover three districts, including Komik, one of the world’s highest motorable villages at an elevation of 15,049 feet in the Spiti valley.

Why It Matters

Sharma clarified that no OTP will be asked during the census process. To conduct the exercise, around 20,390 enumerators and supervisors will be deployed across Himachal Pradesh.

• With 130 people in 2011, the village is home to the 500 year-old Lundup Tsemo Gompa Buddhist Monastery.

• Census 2027 will be the 16th census of India and the eighth after Independence.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• The census reference date for these areas is October 1, 2026.

• Deep Shikha Sharma said that the census data will be collected through dual mode through an app, named Census 2027-PE, and through self enumeration.

• Continued reporting by Hindustan Times as more details emerge