Census 2027 prep underway; Assam’s population may cross 3.62 Cr

Guwahati, June 22: Preparations for the much awaited census operations scheduled for March, 2027 has already started and as per the projections, the population of Assam may witness substantial increase.

The last census in the country was held in 2011 and the scheduled census in 2021 was postponed due to the Covid pandemic. The government has announced that the countrywide census operation will start in March, 2027 and it will take around two years to complete the entire process.

During the 2011 census, the population of Assam was around 3.12 crore and in 2015, around 3.29 crore people had applied for inclusion of names in the National Register of Citizens (NRC), of which applications of 10 lakh persons were rejected as they failed to provide adequate proof of their citizenship.

However, as per the data of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the projected population of Assam in 2024 was around 3.62 crore, which will definitely increase by the time the census operation starts.

Meanwhile, official sources told The Assam Tribune that preparations for the next census has already started and a meeting of the state census directors and other senior officers would be held in New Delhi on July 4 and 5 to finalize the modalities of the mega exercise.

Though the manpower requirement in Assam for the operation has not yet been finalized, sources admitted that a huge manpower would be required for house to house enumeration. Sources said the first step would be to map out the enumeration blocks.

The blocks are finalized as per population pattern. But there are changes according to terrain. In the cities, a census official can enumerate more households but it would be different in case of the areas having tough terrain.

Sources said that the next step would be to train up the selected manpower. Only after completion of these two steps, the third step – enumeration – would start. However, this time, the time required for the census process will be a bit less as the enumerators will be provided an App, with which, they would be able to upload the collected data immediately.

Earlier, the collected data had to be delivered manually and processing that took extra time. But in the areas, where the mobile network is weak, the enumerators will be allowed to collect the data on paper and upload the same when they reach a place where the network is good enough.

It may be mentioned here that for the first time, caste census will also be carried out as earlier there was only a religion column and caste of people was not included in the census.