| 16th census of India | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| General information | ||||
| Country | India | |||
| Authority | Ministry of Home Affairs | |||
| Website | censusindia.gov.in | |||
The2025 census of India, or the16thIndian census, is to be conducted in two phases, a house listing phase and a population enumeration phase. Although initially the house listing was to begin in April 2020 along with the updating of theNational Population Register, and the population enumeration on 9 February 2021,[1] they have been continuously postponed. Initially the house listing was to be conducted between April and September 2020, with population enumeration in February 2021 and a revision round in March 2021. The reference date was to be 1 March 2021 in most of the states and 1 October 2020 forJammu and Kashmir and some areas ofHimachal Pradesh andUttarakhand.[2][3] On 2 January 2023, Additional Registrar General of India communicated to all the states that the date of freezing of administrative boundaries had been extended till 30 June 2023.[4] The 16th census can only begin three months after the administrative boundaries have been frozen. The completion of the census in its two phases takes at least 11 months, so the possibility of the completion of this decennial census exercise in 2024 or early 2025 is ruled out, as the census was expected to begin in September 2024, but due to unexplained reasons, had still not started by early October 2024.[5] It was reported that month that the census would take place in 2025, with a decision on a caste census still not decided. It will also serve the purpose of redistributing seats in theLok Sabha for the 2029 national election.[6]
In September 2019, Union Home MinisterAmit Shah had stated that the 2021 national census would be done fully digitally through a mobile phone application,[7] and will be carried out in 16 languages.[8] In February 2021, Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman allocated₹37.68 billion (US$430 million) for the census in the2021 Union budget of India.[9] It was delayed to 2022[10] and then further delayed to 2023[11] due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Following the postponement of the deadline of freezing administrative boundaries to 30 June 2023, and owing to the general elections in 2024, the census can now only take place in late 2024.[12] This was confirmed in July 2023, when theGovernment of India extended the deadline to freeze the administrative boundaries to 1 January 2024, ruling out the census exercise before the2024 Indian general election.[13][14] On 20 September 2023, Union Home MinisterAmit Shah informed during the discussion onWomen's Reservation Bill that census and the delimitation exercise will take place after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.[15][16] On 30 December 2023, the deadline to freeze the administrative boundaries was further extended to 30 June 2024, thereby postponing the census to at least October 2024 due to it requiring three months to identify and train enumerators.[17]
The House-listing schedule contains 31 questions:[18][19]
| No. | Information |
|---|---|
| 1 | Building Number (Municipal, local authority or census number) |
| 2 | Census House Number |
| 3 | Predominant material of floor, wall and roof of the census house |
| 4 | Ascertain use of census house |
| 5 | Condition of the census house |
| 6 | Household number |
| 7 | Total number of persons normally residing in the household |
| 8 | Name of the head of the household |
| 9 | Sex of the head of the household |
| 10 | Whether the head of the household belongs to SC/ST/Other |
| 11 | Ownership status of the census house |
| 12 | Number of dwelling rooms exclusively in possession of the household |
| 13 | Number of married couple(s) living in the household |
| 14 | Main source of drinking water |
| 15 | Availability of drinking water source |
| 16 | Main source of lighting |
| 17 | Access to latrine |
| 18 | Type of latrine |
| 19 | Waste water outlet |
| 20 | Availability of bathing facility |
| 21 | Availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection |
| 22 | Main fuel used for cooking |
| 23 | Radio/Transistor |
| 24 | Television |
| 25 | Access to Internet |
| 26 | Laptop/Computer |
| 27 | Telephone/Mobile phone/Smartphone |
| 28 | Bicycle/Scooter/Motorcycle/Moped |
| 29 | Car/Jeep/Van |
| 30 | Main cereal consumed in the household |
| 31 | Mobile number |
The population enumeration follows the housing census within a gap of six to eight months. During the second phase of census taking, each person is enumerated and her/his individual particulars like age, marital status, religion, schedule caste/schedule tribe, mother tongue, education level, disability, economic activity, migration, fertility (for female) are collected.[20]
In April 2019, at the conference of data users it was announced that 3.3 million enumerators would be enlisted and that they would be encouraged to use their ownsmart phones, although a paper option will also be available, which the enumerators will then need to submit electronically.[2] During the census exercise a census portal will be opened, allowing individuals to self-enumerate after logging in using their phone numbers.[21] The building of a mobile app for conducting the census along with the creation of the census portal for information collection is aimed at doing away with paper records in the exercise, making India along withVietnam andEswatini, one of the few countries who have tried to do so.[22]
National Population Register will be linked to this census.[23][24] NPR was supposed to be updated along with the first phase of census between April and September 2020,[25][26] however that too has been postponed indefinitely.[27] On 24 December 2019, the Central Government approved₹39.41 billion (equivalent to₹49 billion or US$560 million in 2023) for updating the NPR across India.[28]
The15th Indian census, taken in 2011, attempted to estimate the population based onSocio-Economic and Caste Status for the first time since 1931. However, as the enumeration was based on recording the respondents' declaration, it led to creation of hundreds of thousands ofcaste/subcaste categories. For the 16th Indian census, the government was instead considering enumeration based on a list ofeducationally or socially disadvantaged castes (known as Other Backward Class) reported by each state.[29] However, in February 2020, the Indian government rejected the demand for OBC data as part of the 2021 census.[30][31]
In September 2018, the thenHome Minister,Rajnath Singh, announced that the 2021 census will haveOther Backward Class (OBC) data, for the first time since the1931 census.[32] Despite this announcement, the questionnaire presented in July 2019 did not have a specific OBC category.[33] Several state legislative assemblies passed resolutions for collecting OBC data including theMaharashtra Legislative Assembly,[34]Odisha Legislative Assembly,[35] andBihar Legislative Assembly,[36] while thegovernment of Uttar Pradesh, rejected the opposition's demand to pass such a resolution.[37] On 29 February 2020, central government refused to conduct caste census despite demands from states.[38] Despite Centre's rejection,Maharashtra legislators were adamant for caste based census at least in the state.[39] Protest march in support of OBC census was carried out inJammu and Kashmir.[40]Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment,Ramdas Athawale also demanded carrying of census counting every single caste in India.[41] On 6 June 2022 theBihar government issued a notification to conduct acaste survey, and began collecting data on 7 January following the dismissal of petitions against it in the supreme court.[42] On 2 October the Bihar government released preliminary data from the survey,[43] with the full detailed report being publicly released in the state assembly on 7 November 2023.[44] On 26 June 2024, theTamil Nadu legislative assembly unanimously adopted a resolution urging the union government to immediately commence census work along with a caste based population census, however the Chief MinisterM.K. Stalin declined to conduct a Bihar style caste survey, as any changes made to reservation based on a survey by the state government could be struck down by the courts, while contending that a full-fledged census can be legally only conducted by the Union government under the Census Act, 1948.[45][46] In July 2024, Union MinisterChirag Paswan backed the demand for conducting a caste census as part of the 2021 census, however he opposed its data from being publicly revealed as he believed it will lead to division in society.[47]
During the2024 general elections, the inclusion of a caste census became a key demand of the oppositionINDIA alliance led by theCongress.[48]
The 2021 census is the first census to ever be postponed in India since itsbeginning under the British in 1872. Even during theSecond World War, the census of India was held in 1941 as scheduled, even if the tabulations of the results of the1941 census were incomplete compared to the detailed reports published after the 1931 census. Before the census, according to the rules, the boundaries of administrative units are to be frozen before conducting a census; this was initially supposed to have happened on 31 December 2019, with the states having to update these changes to theRegistrar General of India by 31 January 2020. The house listing phase or the first phase of the census along with the NPR was to be conducted between April 1, 2020, and September 30, 2020.[49] However following theCOVID-19 pandemic, the Union government postponed the house listing phase of the census exercise,[50] before the census in its entirety was postponed to 2022[51] However the census was never conducted in 2022 as it was repeatedly delayed. The deadline to freeze administrative boundaries were first extended to 31 December 2020, then to 31 March 2021, then further extended to 30 June, then to 31 December of the same year until it was extended to 30 June 2022, after which it was extended to 31 December 2022, and then another extension was granted till 30 June 2023.[12] The exercise was then given a further extension to 1 January 2024,[13] this was followed by another extension to 30 June 2024.[17] The official rationale for all the nine extensions has been the COVID-19 pandemic, however this has been criticized as during 2021–22, twelve countries in Asia were able to conduct their decennial census including neighbouring Bangladesh and Nepal.[52] An analysis byThe Hindu found that 143 countries had conducted their censuses after March 2020, with India being one of the only two countries which are yet to conduct their regular census exercise among the ten most populous countries in the world, with the other beingNigeria.[53]
The delays have also been attributed by analysts to the linking of the census with the NPR exercise which is seen as the first step towards the controversialNational Register of Citizens (NRC), the decision to update the NPR and discussions on imposing a nationwide NRC were some of the key issues taken up by theCAA-NRC protests. The demands for a caste census have also been attributed as one of the reasons behind the continuous delays.[54]
The continuous postponement of the census has led to many commentators and newspaper editorials demanding for it to conducted immediately as the information from census is the only way to gain granular data on the country, as sample surveys can only provide state or countrywide data rather than street or village or block level data, with some of these surveys also relying on census data. The lack of census data is said to be a major handicap for policy-makers as without it, they have to rely on outdated census data for local level planning. Many key welfare interventions in India such as thePublic Distribution System and theNFSA are reliant on census data, and having outdated data has led to the exclusion of many potential beneficiaries from them. Without data from the census, it is also difficult to validate the outcomes of government interventions using key metrics such as literacy, housing, fertility, urbanization, etc.[55][56][57][54][58] The lack of updated census data also affects the quantum ofreservation forSC/ST segments of the population and the delimitation of constituencies for elections.[59]
The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced that the final data from the 2024 Census of India is expected to be released in March 2026. As the census takes 18 months to complete, theNarendra Modi government has made it a priority to gather up-to-date data on the population, which it believes, would be consistent with its policies on development as at the end of his 3rd term in office, as there have been significant gaps in data since the 2011 Census.[60][61]