The Office of the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India has launched two mobile applications and a self-enumeration test portal as part of the preparations for the country’s first-ever digital Census, scheduled for 2027.
About the Initiative
- The pre-test for the first phase, titled House Listing and Housing Operations (HLO), will be conducted in select areas from November 10 to 30, 2025.
- This phase will cover around 30 questions related to housing amenities and infrastructure.
- Enumerators, including block development officers, revenue officials, and schoolteachers, have been trained to use two new mobile apps — Digital Layout Map (DLM) and Census 2027 – Houselist — available on Google Play Store for authorised personnel.
- The apps are compatible with both Android and iOS devices and will enable real-time data collection, geo-tagging, and monitoring.
Self-Enumeration Facility
- To promote public participation, the government has opened a Self-Enumeration Test Portal from November 1 to 7, 2025.
- Residents of selected pre-test areas can voluntarily submit their details online through official website- https://test.census.gov.in/se before field visits by enumerators.
Digital Transformation in Census
- The Digital Layout Map (DLM) app marks a major shift from paper-based data collection used in the 2011 Census to a fully digital mode.
- It allows enumerators to record building coordinates (latitude and longitude), building type, use (residential/non-residential), number of floors, landmarks, and Census house numbers — ensuring greater accuracy and efficiency.
- The app does not collect any personal information of residents, focusing solely on mapping and structural data.
- The House Listing Operation app has been developed to modernise data collection across both Census phases — Houselisting and Population Enumeration — scheduled between April 1, 2026, and February 28, 2027.
Significance
- This marks a historic transition for the Census of India — the world’s largest data collection exercise — by adopting digital tools for faster processing, enhanced accuracy, and improved transparency.
- The initiative represents a crucial step toward modern governance, data-driven policymaking, and the realization of Digital India goals.
History of Census in India
- The Census of India is one of the world’s largest administrative and statistical exercises, conducted every 10 years to collect demographic, social, and economic data.
- The first synchronous census in India was conducted in 1881 during British rule under W.C. Plowden, the then Census Commissioner. However, some provincial counts had begun earlier in the 1860s.
- Since then, India has conducted 15 decennial censuses (from 1881 to 2011) without interruption, even during wars and political transitions.
- After Independence, the first Census of independent India was conducted in 1951, providing vital data for national planning and development programmes.
- The Census Act of 1948 provides the legal framework for conducting the exercise, ensuring confidentiality of personal data.
- Subsequent censuses—1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011—have tracked India’s massive demographic transformation, urbanization trends, literacy growth, and population density changes.
- The 2011 Census, the 15th National Census and 7th since Independence, recorded India’s population at 1.21 billion, with a decadal growth of 17.7% and a literacy rate of 74.04%.
- The 2021 Census, originally scheduled, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making the upcoming Census 2027 India’s first fully digital census, marking a major shift from paper-based to technology-driven enumeration.
