The Union government has officially notified the 40 questions that enumerators will ask during the second phase of the population census, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
India’s census is conducted once every 10 years to collect details such as age, education, employment and other socio-economic indicators, aimed at supporting accurate government planning. Teachers and government staff have been deployed for the exercise.
This year’s census is being carried out in two phases and, for the first time, in a digital mode. The first phase began on August 1 and will run for 30 days, with officials collecting responses to 33 questions and enabling people to submit details online.
The second phase will start on August 17 in snowbound areas of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir, and in parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In other states, it is scheduled to begin in February 2027.
The notified second-phase questionnaire includes personal and household particulars such as name, relationship to the head of the household, gender, date of birth and age, marital status and age at marriage, spouse’s name, nationality, religion, SC/ST status, parents’ names, disability status, languages known, education and attendance, work and occupation details, migration history, permanent address, select fertility-related questions for eligible respondents, and identifiers such as mobile number, Aadhaar (if available), voter ID, passport (for Indian citizens) and driving licence, along with the place where a Covid vaccine was taken and the number of bank accounts.
