‘Home ministry seeks ₹14.5K-cr for Census-2027’

AS the unification finance ministry is expected to supply the Budget broadside shortly, the record-keeper superior general of India (RGI) is learnt to have sought an increased outlay of over ₹14,500 crore for the Census-2027 exercise, which is set to begin from April next year, people familiar with the development said.Officials who didn’t want to be named said it was earlier estimated that around ₹12,000 crore would be required for conducting the entire Census exercise --- including the first phase of house-listing and second phase of population enumeration --- but considering the extensive use of technology, expenses on digital security of data, and daily expenses of the mammoth exercise, a little more than ₹14,500 crore has been sought.To be sure, this is a demand and not the final budget for Census-2027.An officer said that the ministry of home affairs (MHA) had last week asked all departments under it, including RGI, to carefully review the budget allocations while finalising proposals for revised estimates (RE) 2025-26 and budget estimates (BE) 2026-27, so that realistic estimates may be prepared.Census-2027, for which field exercise will formally begin from April 1 next year, was announced by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) in June this year. A notification for intent to conduct the decadal exercise was issued on June 16.In its first circular for Census-2027, RGI last month directed its field offices across states and UTs to send details of changes in administrative boundaries since 2010 and ensure that such changes, down to the ward and village level are updated ahead of the Census.The 16th Census, which was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be conducted in two phases. In phase one, of house-listing operations, the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected. Subsequently, in the second phase of population enumeration, the demographic, socioeconomic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected.The much-delayed census, which will include caste enumeration, will be completed by March 1, 2027. Officials have said that while the data collection would be over by March 1, 2027, the entire exercise to collate the data and publish it will take two to three years.The ministry of home affairs has said that the 16th Census will see the involvement of about 3.4 million enumerators and supervisors. It also said that the exercise “will be conducted through digital means using mobile applications” and “provision of self-enumeration will also be made available to the people”.