Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayan will hold a press conference on Monday to present the plan for India’s upcoming census. The conference, set at the National Media Centre in New Delhi, will detail how the census will be conducted nationwide. Officials have been warned against misconduct during the census, with penalties including fines and imprisonment for up to three years for offenses like data misuse and obstruction of census operations.
The Registrar General of India has emphasized punitive measures under the Census Act, 1948, for violations during the census process. The upcoming census will be fully digitized, marking a significant shift as it moves online for the first time. Citizens will have the opportunity to self-enumerate within a specified period, streamlining the data collection process.
In a progressive move, the 2027 census will recognize live-in couples as married if they consider their relationship stable. This stance, a first in India’s census operations, will be reflected in the self-enumeration portal. The online system will allow individuals to directly input their census details, reducing the need for enumerators and enhancing efficiency in data collection.
The census questionnaire will consist of 33 questions during the ‘houselisting’ phase, including inquiries about married couples in households. This phase, aimed at establishing a comprehensive national household database, is scheduled to last 45 days. The houselisting phase will run from April 1 to September 30, with specific timelines for each state and Union Territory to be separately communicated.
