The Census 2021 is the planned 16th national census of India, a decennial exercise to enumerate the country's population and collect comprehensive demographic and socio-economic data. It is a type of Act and concept, as it is mandated by the Census Act, 1948, and is a Union subject listed at serial number 69 of the Seventh Schedule under Article 246 of the Constitution.
The modern census tradition began with the first synchronous census in 1881. The legal framework for the post-Independence exercise is the Census Act, 1948, which was passed on September 3, 1948. The census is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, which functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The mechanism is governed by the Census Act, 1948, which empowers the Central Government to appoint a Census Commissioner and makes it obligatory for every citizen to answer questions truthfully (Section 8(2)). A key provision ensures strict confidentiality, as individual census records are not open to inspection and are not admissible as evidence in any court. The exercise is typically conducted in two phases: Houselisting and Housing Census, followed by Population Enumeration.
The census data is critical for the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies, the allocation of funds by the Finance Commission, and the planning of government schemes. The 2021 exercise was also planned to include the updation of the National Population Register (NPR) under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The Census 2021 was originally scheduled for a reference date of March 1, 2021, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, marking the first delay since 1881. The Population Enumeration phase is now scheduled for February 2027. A significant change is the proposed use of a mobile app for data collection for the first time. The policy of enumerating only Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) remains, continuing the post-Independence practice of not collecting caste data for other groups.