First Census in 14 years kicks off with software trial in Karnataka

The spadework for the much-awaited census exercise, after a gap of 14 years, began with a pre-test for software evaluation on Monday. The exercise, which is aimed at testing and refining digital systems for data collection, is set to conclude on November 30.

The last census exercise was undertaken in 2011. The next enumeration due in 2021 could not take place due to the Covid pandemic.

On October 16, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) had notified that the pre-test for House Listing Operation (HLO), the first phase of Population Census-2027, will be conducted from November 10-30 in selected sample areas, and the option to self-enumerate will be available from November 1-7.

Three Karnataka districts -- Bengaluru Urban (JP Park Ward), Uttara Kannada (46 villages of Supa (Joida) Taluk) and Chamarajanagar (27 villages of Gundlupet Taluk) -- have been chosen for the pre-test.

This trial is aimed at assessing the functioning and efficiency of the digital application across diverse areas from urban regions to those with limited mobile network connectivity,

During the pre-test, the enumerators will visit homes of prominent citizens and help them in filling the details digitally, as this will be the first census exercise, which will be conducted electronically.

According to the available details, around 30 questions on household particulars like address (building number), house number, house floor, name and sex of the head of the household, number of persons residing in the household, main source of drinking water, main source of lighting, access to toilet, fuel used for cooking and food habits are also likely to be asked from families during the exercise.

A pre-test is required to test the efficacy of the entire exercise that will be held in two phases – HLO and Population Enumeration from April 1, 2026, to February 28, 2027.

This trial marks a significant step towards India's first-ever fully digital Census, replacing traditional paper-based schedules with a mobile application-based data collection system.

The information collection exercise will continue for the next 20 days. The data gathered during this trial will be purely for system evaluation purposes and will not form part of the official Census database, said official sources.

To encourage public participation, a self-enumeration facility was made available through the census portal from November 1 to 7, allowing individuals residing in the areas selected for pre-test to submit their details online.

Training programmes for field functionaries were also held simultaneously across all three areas on November 4-6 to ensure smooth and standardised operations.

The efficiency of the exercise of first phase of census house-listing and housing census scheduled to be conducted from April-2026 will also be tested during the current pre-test, said the sources.