Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The first phase of the census 2027, the Houselisting and Housing Census, or HLO, was completed in 33 districts in Assam on September 15. This phase of the census process could not be conducted in the flood-affected districts of Sivasagar and Charaideo.
According to sources at the Directorate of Census Operations, Assam, the HLO was conducted from August 17 to September 15, 2026. Prior to this phase of Census 2027, Self-enumeration was done from August 2 to 16, 2026. A total of 11,64,586 households completed the self-enumeration process.
The Directorate of Census Operations, Assam, after discussion with the state government, has proposed to conduct HLO in the Sivasagar and Charaideo districts from September 18. The Directorate is now awaiting approval from the Registrar-General of India in this regard.
Floods hit the districts of Sivasagar and Charaideo on July 19, wreaking havoc among the people there. As a result, the HLO process in the two districts was deferred. At present, the training of enumerators for the HLO in these districts is ongoing.
Now, the second phase of Census 2027, which is the Population Enumeration (PE) phase, is proposed to be conducted in the state from February 2027, along with most other parts of the country. The PE phase records detailed demographic, social, and economic data for every individual in the country.
Moreover, the Caste Enumeration will be done for the first time in independent India. This phase includes the enumeration of castes across all communities, rather than only Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes. A total of 40 questions are notified for this phase, covering 13 new data fields, compared to past censuses.
As for the data topics during the PE phase, the information slated to be collected includes age, sex, religion, language, literacy, education, disability, migration, fertility, and economic activity status. Census 2027 is the 16th census overall in the continuous series of the Indian census and the 8th census conducted since India's independence.
India's first non-synchronous (non-simultaneous) census was conducted in 1872 during the British rule under the tenure of Lord Mayo, the Viceroy and Governor-General of British India.
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