RG & CCI Mritunjay Kumar Narayan welcomed participants from across States on October 10, 2025. Photo: X/@CensusIndia2027
A four-day training to conduct the pre-test exercise for the first phase of the Population Census 2027 has started, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (RG & CCI) said on Friday (October 10, 2025).
“A four-day intensive training of Lead Trainers for the Pre-Test Exercise of Phase I — Houselisting & Housing Census commenced today at Janganana Bhawan, New Delhi,” the RGI posted on X.
Inaugurating the session, RG & CCI Mritunjay Kumar Narayan welcomed participants from across States and highlighted the pivotal role of Lead Trainers as torch-bearers in cascading training nationwide and also emphasised on the smooth conduct of the first-ever Digital Census in the country, the post said.
The Hindu reported on August 28 that the pre-test will be conducted in October and November.
Pre-test is required to test the efficacy of the entire exercise that will be held in two phases — Houselisting and Housing Schedule (HLO) and Population Enumeration from April 1, 2026, to February 28, 2027. This will be the first digital Census and the first to enumerate caste in independent India.
The test will evaluate the proposed questions, data collection methodologies, training effectiveness, logistics, printing processes, data quality assessment, identifying potential field issues among others.
This is the first Census since 2011, as the exercise that was scheduled in 2021 was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will now be completed in 2027.
The pre-test for the planned 2021 Census took place in 2019, covering more than 26 lakh people in 76 districts of 36 States and Union Territories. Around 6,000 enumerators and 1,100 supervisors from State governments were engaged in 2019.
Published – October 10, 2025 10:41 pm IST
