Centre issues Census notification

The Union Home Ministry on 16 June formally notified the conduct of the next decennial census to be held in 2027. The Registrar General of India, under the MHA, issued the notification in the Gazette of India in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Census Act, 1948.

• The new notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs supersedes an earlier order from March 2019, which had set the schedule for the Census originally planned for 2021 but later postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• According to the notification, the census will be carried out across the country with the reference date set on March 1, 2027.
• This reference date will be applicable throughout India, with the exception of certain snow-bound and hard-to-reach regions.
• For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the census reference date has been set on October 1, 2026. These regions have traditionally followed an earlier reference date owing to logistical constraints posed by extreme weather and terrain.
• With the publication of the notification, the freezing of administrative boundaries comes into effect, barring States from making any changes to the maps of police stations, districts, and tehsils, among others, as enumeration blocks form the basis of Census. The boundaries of administrative units cannot be changed by States till the Census process is complete.
• According to the Constitutional mandate, the first Census after 2026 can be used as the basis to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies. The next General Election is expected to be held in 2029.