India’s digital census 2026-27 faces trust, data quality challenges

The decennial census, delayed by six years, has begun with house-listing and population enumeration scheduled for completion by early 2027. It will be India's first fully digital census, using mobile data capture and self-enumeration portals instead of pen-and-paper forms, promising near real-time tracking and faster tabulation. However, Frontline reports that the shift to a technology-heavy model risks embedding new biases if devices fail or enumerators lack digital literacy, and that the integrity of data is now tethered to software stability and field-level execution.

The census now asks 31 core questions, discarding outdated metrics like manual night soil removal and banking access, while adding modern markers such as internet access, smartphone ownership and piped natural gas. A 'Transgender' category for household head replaces the earlier binary option. Frontline notes that while this granular data enables precise welfare targeting, it also risks centralising welfare delivery and undermining state and local bodies. Separately, experts quoted by Frontline say the census still fails to capture circular and seasonal migrants due to the six-month stay clause and a single-reason migration code, masking the true scale of inter-state movement.

Trust in the exercise is undermined by political delays: religion data from 2001 and 2011 was released only after Lok Sabha elections, and metadata has been withheld. The Census Act, 1948, provides the legal framework, and the census has covered the entire country only since 1971, with exceptions in Assam and Jammu and Kashmir in 1981 and 1991. The next phase, population enumeration, is set for February 2027.