Census 2027 Schedule Reopens Debate Over Delimitation

As part of the announcement, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the nodal authority for the exercise, put forward the schedule for conducting the exercise along with the caste enumeration, which will begin on March 1, 2027 across the country, except for the Union Territories of Ladakh and snow-bound areas of J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the cutoff date will be October 1, 2026.  

The decennial exercise was due to be conducted in 2021, but it was postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19, and subsequently delayed by technical and administrative issues.

In an official release, the MHA said, “The notification for the intent of conducting the Population Census with the above reference dates will be published in the official gazette tentatively on June 16, 2025, as per the provisions of Section 3 of the Census Act 1948.”

The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, under the MHA, has prepared 31 questions to be asked of citizens during the exercise.

History of India's Decennial Census Exercise

Census was first introduced in India in 1872. After Independence, the country’s population count has been conducted every 10 years since 1951. The exercise is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948, and Census Rules, 1990. 

The last Census was conducted in 2011, in two phases. Phase 1 was House Listing (HLO), which was conducted between April 1 and September 30, 2010. Phase 2, ie. Population Enumeration (PE), was conducted between February 9 and February 28, 2011.  

Census 2021 was also proposed to be conducted in two phases, with Phase 1 between April and September 2020, and Phase 2 in February 2021.

“All preparations for the first phase of the 2021 Census were completed, and field work was scheduled to begin in some states/UTs from April 1, 2020. But due to the outbreak of Covid-19 across the country, it was postponed,” the MHA noted.

In April, following a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Centre announced that caste-based enumeration would be part of the next Census. “The Modi government, committed to social justice, has taken a historic decision today,” Home Minister Amit Shah wrote in an X post in Hindi.

According to the 2011 data, India’s total population was 121 crore, sex ratio was 940 females per 1,000 males, literacy rate was 74.04 per cent, and population growth was 17.64 per cent, from 2001 to 2011.

The Delimitation Question

The exercise of counting India’s population will not only open the doors for delimitation, but also facilitate the government to fulfil its promise to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament.

According to sources, once the final data is out, which could be in late 2027, it will open the doors to start the delimitation process. But Parliament will need to pass a Delimitation Act to pave the way for the formation of a Delimitation Commission.

The Commission would, in turn, devise a formula (population per constituency), in consultation with various stakeholders including state governments, based on which the delimitation exercise would be conducted, the sources said, adding that a Bill would be brought for constitutional amendment to increase the seats in Parliament, which remain frozen at 543. 

Delimitation is mandated under Articles 81 and 82 of the Constitution, and is required to be carried out after every Census. It has happened thrice, after the Census of 1951, 1961, and 1971.

The 42nd Amendment, passed during the Emergency, froze the total number of Parliamentary and state Assembly seats until the 2001 Census.

The present delimitation of Parliamentary constituencies was done on the basis of the 2001 Census, under provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002. But, only the boundaries of constituencies have been altered, not the number of seats, which has remained the same since 1971.

Later in 2002, the Constitution was again amended (84th Amendment) to specify that there would be no interstate delimitation until the “first Census conducted after the year 2026”.

According to the Delimitation Act of 2002, the Delimitation Commission would be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, and would have a Chief Election Commissioner and State Election Commissioner as members. The Commission will also have MPs and MLAs as associate members, without having any voting rights. 

The Centre will need to pass a constitutional amendment to increase the total number of seats in Parliament. This will require a two-thirds majority. According to Article 81 of the Constitution, the total number of seats in the Lok Sabha cannot exceed 550.