The government is expected to begin the census, an official survey of the country's population, in 2025 after a four-year-long delay, sources said on Monday. The process will begin in 2025 and is expected to continue until 2026.
Following the Census, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats will commence, and this exercise is likely to be completed by 2028, the sources added.
This development comes amid demands from several opposition parties for a caste census. However, the government has not yet made a decision, and the details of the census process are yet to be made public.
The census, typically conducted every ten years to update the National Population Register (NPR), was scheduled for 2021 but had to be postponed due to the Covid pandemic. Now, the census cycle is also expected to change.
The upcoming census round is expected to include the usual surveys on religion and social class, along with counts of General, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes. However, sources suggest that next year's census may also survey sub-sects within the General and SC-ST categories.
Hinting an immediate beginning of the much-delayed census processes, the central deputation of Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, currently serving as Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, has been extended recently till August 2026.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on the probability of conducting the decadal census, had said in August that "it will be carried out at an appropriate time. Once decided, I will announce how it will be done". Shah had also mentioned that the next national census would be done fully digitally through a mobile phone application.
The last census recorded a population of over 121 crores in India, reflecting a growth rate of 17.7 per cent.
