Article Title: Next census to conclude by March 2027, says govt.
05-06-2025
Polity & Governance Current Affairs Analysis
Context
• India will count its population by March 1, 2027, in a Census to be held after an unprecedented 16 year gap, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Wednesday. This will be the country’s first digital Census, and the first in Independent India to include an enumeration of castes as well.
Census - History
• A census is a survey of the population of an area that includes collecting details of a country’s demographics including age, sex and occupation.
• The first non-synchronous took place in 1872 under Lord Mayo.
• Under W.C. Plowden, the Census Commissioner of India, the first all - india synchronous decennial (every ten years) census was conducted in 1881.
• Independent India’s first census was held in 1951 and since then it has happened in the first year of every decade.
• The Census is governed by the Census Act of 1948, introduced by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
• The Constitution mandates that enumeration is carried out but the Census of India Act of 1948 does not specify its timing or periodicity.
• The population census is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The first Indian city census was conducted in 1830 by Henry Walter in Dacca.
• Global comparison: Many countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, also conduct a census every 10 years, while some, like Canada and Japan, conduct it every five years.
• It is a Union subject under Article 246 and is listed as item 69 in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
• India has conducted the Census seven times since independence, yet only four delimitations (1952, 1953, 1973, and 2002) have occurred.
• The Constitution mandates that the first Census after 2026 can be used as the basis to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies which are currently drawn on the basis of 1971 Census data.
"UPSC-2026-PRELIMS COMBINED MAINS PROGRAMME" NEW BATCH STARTS WITH ORIENTATION ON JUNE 15th,2025 
