Home Minister Amit Shah reviews 16th census readiness; Focuses on 'stringent data security'

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed preparation for the forthcoming census with Union home secretary Govind Mohan and other senior officials here. India's 16th census with caste enumeration will be carried out soon.

The census will be conducted in two phases. In phase one i.e. Houselisting Operation (HLO), the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected. In phase two i.e. Population Enumeration (PE), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected.

In the census, caste enumeration will also be done, the home ministry statement said. For census activities, about 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh census functionaries would be deployed.


This census is the 16th census since the beginning and 8th after Independence, the statement said.

The ensuing census will be conducted through digital means using mobile applications. Provision of self-enumeration would also be made available to the people. Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage, the statement said.

The notification to conduct the census will be published in the official gazette on Monday, the statement said.