The winter chill has set in, and Suman, a trainer in Aniwas village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district, is out after faculty hours to geotag properties and establishments. Glued to her Oppo smartphone, which she bought in 2020, Suman has to seize the latitude and longitude of each home she visits utilizing the compass on her display. She should feed these particulars into the Digital Structure Map (DLM) cellular software.
Multi-step course of
Recording coordinates is only one a part of the job. The subsequent process is to ask a set of 35 questions to every family, together with the development supplies used for the ground and roof, the primary cereal consumed, the supply of ingesting water, cooking gasoline, amongst others. These knowledge are to be saved on one other app referred to as the Census 2027-Houselist.
Suman and several other different lecturers, largely girls, have been engaged by the district administration to test-run an essential process: the nation’s first-ever digital Census.
Will probably be India’s first inhabitants depend since 2011. The train, initially scheduled for 2021, was indefinitely delayed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. Though pandemic-related restrictions ended by 2022, the federal government didn’t clarify the persevering with delay.
Beneath the Structure, the primary Census after 2026 can be utilized as the idea to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies. The subsequent basic election is predicted to be held in 2029.
aCensus officers conducting a pre-test train of the inhabitants census 2027 at Anupshahr, Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh on November 19, 2025.| Picture Credit score:R.V. Moorthy
The ultimate enumeration might be held between April 1, 2026 and February 28, 2027. The intent to conduct the Census was notified in a gazette on June 16, 2025. Will probably be carried out as per the provisions of the Census Act, 1948.
The continued testing section, termed a “pre-test” by the federal government, is split into two phases. The primary — the Home Itemizing and Housing Operation (HLO) — is being carried out from November 10-30 in chosen areas of all States and Union Territories.
A window for self-enumeration was accessible from November 1-7. The second section, the Inhabitants Enumeration (PE), has not but been scheduled.
On August 22, the Registrar-Common & Census Commissioner of India (RG & CCI), Mritunjay Kumar, in a letter to the Administrators of Census Operations (DCOs) of all States, referred to as the pre-test a “full dress rehearsal” involving the complete authorities equipment.
The second-phase pre-test
Officers are but to finalise the methodology to enumerate caste for the upcoming Census train. In 2011, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance authorities carried out the first-ever caste depend, separate from the Census train, however the findings had been by no means made public.
In 2021, the Union authorities submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court docket that caste knowledge enumerated within the Socio Financial and Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 had been fraught with “mistakes and inaccuracies”.
Census officers conducting pre pre-test train of the inhabitants census 2027 at Anupshahr, Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh on November 19, 2025.| Picture Credit score:R.V. Moorthy
Whereas the variety of castes recorded within the 1931 Census carried out below the British was 4,147, the SECC confirmed greater than 46 lakh caste surnames. “Assuming that some castes may bifurcate into sub-castes, the total number cannot be exponentially high to this extent,” the affidavit learn, including that such knowledge couldn’t be relied upon to find out reservations in admission, employment, or elections to native authorities.
Whereas the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are on the Central record, the problem lies with enumerating Different Backward Courses, who’re on Central and State lists. This is likely one of the causes the pre-test has been divided into two phases. There may be, nonetheless, no confusion over housing-related questions.
A pre-test is required to check the efficacy of the complete train. This consists of evaluating the proposed questions, knowledge assortment methodologies, coaching effectiveness, logistics, printing processes, and knowledge high quality evaluation, together with figuring out potential area points as nicely.
In 2019, when a pre-test was carried out for the 2021 Census, the inquiries to be requested for the HLO and PE phases had been examined in a single go, from August 12 to September 30 the identical 12 months. It lined greater than 26 lakh individuals in 76 districts of 36 States and Union Territories. Round 6,000 enumerators and 1,100 supervisors from State governments had been engaged.
RG & CCI Narayan had earlier knowledgeable States that the boundaries of administrative items might be frozen by December 31. Any modifications to the boundaries of tehsils and districts must be accomplished earlier than then.
Ladies on floor
On the tehsil workplace in Bulandshahr’s Anupshahr, a assist desk has been set as much as assist enumerators perceive the pre-test train and their position in it. 4 girls from the Directorate of Census Operations in Lucknow have been deputed on the tehsil, 400 kilometres from the Uttar Pradesh capital, to assist the enumerators navigate the technical glitches or another points that they might face within the area.
A 3-day coaching was additionally offered on the tehsil workplace to make enumerators, largely lecturers and different authorities workers, aware of the digital Census course of.
Suman, who teaches science to college students from Courses 1-5 at Aniwas College, says today she begins her day at 7.30 a.m. and wraps up by 5 p.m. College hours are from 9 a.m. to three.30 p.m. She should cowl 166 households with an estimated inhabitants of round 700 individuals in Aniwas village for the pre-test train. She first geotags properties, then makes a second journey to ask the 35 questions.
Sandhya, the ‘lekhpal’ (a clerk within the State Income Division), who’s supervising the train, navigates the lanes with Suman to see if knowledge are being entered accurately.
“We have deliberately chosen women to lead the tests. During the day, mostly women are at home as men are away at work. Women are comfortable with other women asking the questions. So it is easier for us,” says Sandhya. Every authorities functionary on the Anupshahr tehsil workplace is being given an honorarium of ₹10,000 for the pre-test.
Suman says that the complete train is digitally monitored by officers on the headquarters in Lucknow. “If you think I can simply fill data sitting at home, that is not possible. The geocoordinates of each household that are stored in the DLM app are linked with the Houselist app. So If I am not present at the location, the Houselist app will not accept data. Moreover, the coordinates are shared in real time,” says Suman.
She provides that she has to survey the properties serial-number-wise. “I cannot skip from one house to another without completing the task,” she says.
Within the August 2025 letter to the DCOs of all States, the RG & CCI had proposed that 25-50% of the enumerators within the pre-test be girls. The DCO within the State is the nodal officer from the Workplace of the Registrar Common of India. Every DCO will coordinate with the State authorities on the Census.
It was essential for enumerators to be embedded locally, so they’re aware of the environment and the individuals, says a Census official. The official provides, “Teachers and other government officials who are roped in for the job are already known in the area. But if someone asks detailed questions, we have trained the enumerators to explain the purpose of the exercise for the country.”
Through the coaching, the enumerators had been acquainted with the questions and in addition given tricks to determine households.
“The kitchen is the basic unit of a household. If a building has multiple residents, what defines a family is whether they share a kitchen. So a house may have multiple families. They will be enumerated based on their kitchen usage,” the official says.
Door to door
As Suman enters one of many bylanes of Aniwas village to document knowledge on her telephone, one of many doorways is answered by Shalini Sharma, who’s learning for a grasp’s diploma in sociology.
When Suman says she has come for the Census, Sharma calls for an evidence. Lekhpal Sandhya explains that it is a pre-test train for the Census that can occur in 2027 and that three villages from their district have been chosen. “We will ask you about the number of people in your family, what material is the house made of, what amenities you have…” Shalini understands that that is being accomplished to find out India’s future.
Round 24 lakh enumeration blocks (EB) finalised for the Census that was scheduled for 2021 are possible for use for the 2027 Census. Every EB often contains 150-180 homes or 650-800 individuals. Aside from her smartphone, Suman additionally carries a printout of the questions, which she has clasped onto a writing board. “It is easier to read questions from the paper and then feed answers into the phone,” she says.
As she strikes forward, the door is answered by one other resident who identifies himself as Om Bir Singh Sisodia. When he’s requested if he knew what the train was about, Sisodia says, “I think this is for voter registration.”
