The North News
New Delhi, June 16
The Centre has officially announced that the country’s 16th Census will begin on 1 October 2026 in snow-bound regions, with the rest of the country to follow from 1 March 2027. A gazette notification issued by the Centre on Monday confirmed that the reference date for the census will be on March 1, 2027 for most of India. However, in areas such as the Union Territory of Ladakh and remote parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, where winter conditions make access difficult, the enumeration will commence earlier — at October 1, 2026.
This will be India’s first population count since 2011, as the 2021 exercise was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related administrative setbacks. The delay, the longest in the history of the Indian census, had raised questions about the availability of current demographic and socio-economic data in a country of over 1.4 billion people.
A major change in the upcoming census is the inclusion of caste data. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking on Sunday, confirmed the development after a review meeting with top census officials. “The census will include caste enumeration for the first time,” he said, adding that more than 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors will be deployed, supported by about 1.3 lakh census functionaries using digital devices to collect information.
