Census 2027: Phase 2 to begin Sept 1 in Ladakh, snow-bound areas as Centre releases ₹4,102 crore

The first phase of the Census 2027—Houselisting and Housing Census—has been completed in 31 states and union territories, with the remaining areas set to wrap up by September 2026, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told Rajya Sabha this week. On Wednesday, Rai said that a total of ₹4,102 crore has so far been released to states/UTs “for training of census functionaries, manpower assistance, technical infrastructure, and payment of honorarium, among other heads.”

Phase 1 status and funding

The first phase, conducted over a 30-day window in each state/UT between April and September 2026, also offered a 15-day self-enumeration option just before house-to-house work.

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Phase 2 to begin in snow-bound areas from September 1

The second phase—Population Enumeration (PE)—will start early in Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. As per the Gazette notification dated August 3, 2026, PE in these regions will be undertaken from September 1 to September 30, 2026, with a revisional round from October 1–5, 2026.

"There shall also be an option for self-enumeration from 17th August, 2026 to 31st August, 2026," Rai said, adding that digital tools for the second phase of the census have been developed.

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“Census 2027 will take off in Ladakh in a sense that self-enumeration for Ladakh as well as 16 snow-bound districts of J&K (partially) will start on August 17 till 31… After that, we will have population enumeration from September 1 to 30 for Ladakh as well as J&K,” Chief Principal Census Officer and Director, Census Operations (J&K and Ladakh) Amit Sharma told Hindustan Times. He added that Ladakh will be the first UT to complete the exercise 100% in this cycle because it is entirely snow-bound.

Caste enumeration in Phase 2

The government has confirmed that “comprehensive caste enumeration will be done during the Population Enumeration phase,” marking the first such exercise since Independence. According to reports, the PE questionnaire will cover around 40 parameters and include an open-ended column for caste enumeration.

Timeline and scale

The Union Cabinet in December 2025 approved Census 2027 at an estimated cost of ₹11,718.24 crore. About 18,600 technical manpower will be engaged at local levels for roughly 550 days, generating around 1.02 crore man-days of employment, the cabinet has said in a press release on December 12, 2025. Census 2027 will be the 16th census overall and the eighth since Independence, conducted under the Census Act, 1948 and Census Rules, 1990.