Union Home Secretary asks States to not affect any jurisdictional changes till March 31, 2027

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan on Friday (January 23, 2026) asked the Chief Secretaries not to effect any jurisdictional changes in States till March 31, 2027 in the wake of the forthcoming Population Census 2027. 

Mr. Mohan addressed the Conference of Chief Secretaries of States/Union Territories, State Census Nodal Officers, senior officers from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and Directors of Census Operations regarding the forthcoming Census exercise.

He asked the States to ensure timely appointment and training of Census functionaries; republishing of notifications’ effective use of digital tools, including self-enumeration; and a focused publicity and communication approach to build public awareness, trust and participation to achieve the full objectives of Census 2027.

The conference was attended by the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) Mritunjay Kumar Narayan; Additional Registrar Generals Sunil Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar; Deputy Director General Biswajit Das and other senior officers.

“Welcoming the participants, the RG&CCI described #Census2027 as a historic National exercise and outlined its overall preparedness. He briefed on the usage of the digital tools in the ensuing Census including introduction of Self-Enumeration,” Census India 2027 posted on X.

Mr. Mohan highlighted the long and rich tradition of Census in India while emphasising the pivotal role of States in the successful conduct of Census 2027.

The Home Secretary also sought cooperation from the Chief Secretaries to regularly monitor and review the Census related activities in the States.

The RG&CCI on Friday (January 22) notified 33 questions that will be asked from all residents in the first phase -Houselisting and Housing (HLO) of Population Census 2027, which will commence on April 1 in different phases in all States and will continue till September 30.

This will be the first digital Census, the first to count caste and also the first where respondents will be able to self-enumerate through a yet-to-be announced portal, the government had said.

The second phase of the Census - Population Enumeration (PE), in which caste will be enumerated, will be done in February 2027 for which the questions are yet to be notified.