Junior home minister Nityanand Rai (ANI)

NEW DELHI: The home ministry on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases – Phase 1 involving houselisting and housing census will be conducted over a 30-day period anytime between April and September 2026, depending on convenience of the state or Union territory governments, followed by Phase II involving population enumeration in February 2027.Replying to a question from Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, junior home minister Nityanand Rai reiterated that the reference date for the upcoming census will be 00:00 hours of March 1, 2027, except for the Union territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of the UT of J&K and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Population enumeration in these snow-bound areas will be done in Septmeber 2026 with 00.00 hours of October 1, 2026 as the reference date.Answering a query by Rahul if the government would take into consideration the best practices from previous census exercises, including the caste surveys conducted in various states, Rai said that not only are the learnings from previous censuses considered but also inputs taken from the concerned stakeholders before each census.On his question relating to publishing of draft Census questions to seek inputs from the general public or the people’s representatives, the home ministry said the census questionnaire is finalised before each census, in consultation with different ministries, departments, organisations and census data users. It added that the draft census questionnaires are pre-tested in the field to assess their feasibility prior to their finalisation, and only then is the census questionnaire notified by the Centre in the official gazette.A month-long pre-test for Census 2027 had concluded on November 30 and the questionnaire is expected to be notified soon. The pre-test was undertaken between Nov 1 and 30 in selected sample areas spread across all states and Union territories.The pre-test for houselisting phase of Census 2027 — meant to test efficacy of the census questionnaire, proposed data collection methods including via the digital mode and other logistics – was undertaken from Nov 10 to Nov 30, 2025 in selected sample areas spread across all states and Union territories. It allowed the respondents an option of self-enumerate between Nov 1 and Nov 7, 2025.