Census 2027 (CMMS) approved with ₹11,718 crore outlay for India’s first fully digital headcount

Key facts

• The Union Cabinet approved ₹11,718 crore for Census 2027 which will be India’s first fully digital headcount using the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS).
• CMMS is a dedicated web-based platform that will handle end-to-end Census operations including user creation, training modules, housing listing blocks, allocation of 3.2 million enumerators and supervisors, and near-real-time field monitoring.
• For the first time the Census will include caste enumeration and offer citizens an option for self-enumeration.
• The exercise will run in two phases: house listing and housing census from April to September 2026, followed by population enumeration in February 2027.
• Villages and urban wards will be divided into houselisting blocks (HLBs) each covering 700–800 residents, with boundaries geo-tagged through the HLBC Web Mapping Application to reduce overlaps and omissions.