Centre issues notification for caste census; will take three years to complete, to be conducted in two phases

NEW DELHI: The Union Home Ministry has issued notification for census. A caste census will also be conducted. The census will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase (House Listing Operation - HLO), information on basic conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected. Then, in the second phase, which is the Population Enumeration (PE), the number of members in each household, and other details related to the socio-economic and cultural background of the individuals will be collected.

The census will begin from October 1 next year in the snow-covered areas of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The census process in the rest of the country will begin from March 1, 2027. About 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and about 1.3 lakh census workers will be deployed for the census operations.

A decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah yesterday to ensure strict measures to ensure the security of information in collection, transmission and storage. This is the 16th census since the start of the census process in the country and the eighth after independence. The next census activities will be conducted through digital means using mobile applications. The system will also be provided to the people to participate in the census activities themselves.

The caste census is being conducted in the country after 93 years. The last caste census was conducted during the British rule in 1931. 2027 is considered as the base year. The enumeration and other activities will be carried out next year. It may take at least three years to complete. The center informs that the census, which was supposed to be held in 2021, had to be postponed due to Covid.