The NPR, first created in 2011 and initially proposed to be updated with the first phase of the now-scrapped Census 2021, has been put on the back burner due to stiff opposition from political parties and civil society groups, who had expressed concern that the data could be used to create a countrywide NRC amid allegations that the process could lead to a large number of people being left out of citizenship.
On August 14, 2026, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) notified a set of 40 questions to be asked during the Population Enumeration phase, or the second phase, of the Census, adding 13 new questions or data fields that were not part of the 2011 Census questionnaire.
The NPR had been updated in 2015 and already has the family-wise database of 119 crore residents.
The 1951 exercise
The 1951 Census report by R.B. Vaghaiwalla, the Superintendent of Census Operations for Assam, Manipur and Tripura, shows that the NRC was conceived primarily as a Census and administrative tool rather than a citizenship-verification exercise.“An important innovation of this Census was the preparation of the NRC, in which all important Census data was transcribed from the Census slips. The Register uses the same symbols and abbreviations and is a copy of the Census slips,” the 1951 report said.
Missing NRC entries were copied from Census slips, and missing Census slips were recreated from NRC entries under a special reconciliation exercise undertaken by Vaghaiwalla. This took place even though there had been countrywide instructions from the Registrar General to limit such checks “in the interest of economy of time and money”.
According to Vaghaiwalla, the register was intended to be maintained permanently and updated by village officials, thereby providing continuity between Censuses. Though Section 15 of the Census Act, 1948 ensures confidentiality and says that “records of census [are] not open to inspection nor admissible in evidence”, the NRC was prepared using the data, establishing a precedent of using Census data to prepare the register.
A former Census official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the NPR and the Census were legally distinct exercises governed by different laws. The official pointed out that the updation of the NRC in Assam in 2019 was not based on NPR data and required a separate data collection exercise.
Undercounting concerns
On September 5, the RG&CCI advanced the Population Enumeration phase of Census 2027 in the poll-bound States of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Goa, while deferring the exercise in violence-hit Manipur. The Census will also be the first in Independent India to enumerate castes beyond Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.Mr. Unni said that the decision to conduct the Census in four States ahead of the rest of the country could lead to under-enumeration of migrant workers, particularly from Uttar Pradesh.
“Census dates were traditionally fixed around March 1 because migration was relatively low during that period. Advancing the exercise in States that are due to hold Assembly elections may mean that several migrant workers return home to vote and are not available where they ordinarily reside. By the time they reach their home State, enumeration there may already be over, creating the possibility that some migrants are not counted at either place," he said.
Other than these four States, as well as Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir, population enumeration in the rest of the country will take place in February 2027 with a reference date of March 1, 2027. Snow-bound areas have traditionally been counted before the rest of the country.
India follows a de facto system of enumeration, under which a person is counted where he or she is present during the Census period. Mr. Unni said that even a small increase in undercounting could affect data quality because past Censuses have already recorded some degree of under-enumeration.
On the government’s decision to defer the Census in Manipur, he said that conducting the enumeration without public cooperation would compromise data quality. However, he argued that postponement could deprive the State of demographic evidence relevant to claims about migration and population change.
‘Respondent fatigue’
Mr. Unni questioned the utility of some of the new questions, particularly those relating to identity documents and vaccination history. “Many of these details are already available in administrative databases. It is not clear what statistical purpose some of these questions will serve,” he said.He also cautioned that a lengthy questionnaire could increase “respondent fatigue” and create practical difficulties for enumerators, most of whom are government school teachers.
“If a household is required to answer dozens of questions for every family member, it will increase the time taken per household and may lead to resistance, particularly in urban areas where enumerators are often unknown to residents,” he said.
The other former Census official raised questions over the inclusion of Aadhaar details in Census 2027, noting that the collection of Aadhaar numbers may require changes to existing legal provisions.