India Launches First Fully Digital Census 2027; President Murmu and PM Modi Complete Self-Enumeration

Guwahati: President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have formally launched the first phase of Census 2027 by completing their self-enumeration, marking the beginning of India’s first fully digital population count.

The President participated in the initiative at Rashtrapati Bhavan, where she entered her household details on the official self-enumeration portal in the presence of senior officials, including the Union Home Secretary and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.

The exercise represents a major shift in how the country collects demographic data. For the first time, citizens can voluntarily submit their household information online, reducing reliance on traditional door-to-door enumeration.

The Prime Minister also completed his self-enumeration on April 1, announcing the start of the house listing phase and encouraging people across the country to take part in the digital process. He highlighted that the new system aims to improve transparency, accuracy and efficiency in data collection while enabling individuals to directly provide details about their households.

Census 2027 will be conducted in two stages. The first phase, the House Listing and Housing Census, will run from April to September 2026. Each state and Union Territory will carry out enumeration within a 30-day period, preceded by a 15-day window for voluntary self-enumeration through the online portal.

The second phase will focus on population enumeration, with the reference date set at midnight of March 1, 2027. However, snow-bound and remote regions such as Ladakh and parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh will follow an earlier reference date of October 1, 2026.

Officials said Census 2027 will be India’s 16th census overall and the eighth since Independence. The digital-first approach is expected to speed up processing, reduce errors, and enhance participation, making the world’s largest administrative survey more efficient and modern.

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