The government on Friday announced that population enumeration, which is the second phase of Census 2027, will commence on January 10 next year across the country, while door-to-door enumeration will begin on January 25 and end on February 28.In the door-to-door process, enumerators will ask a set of 40 questions. For the first time, these will include specific queries on caste (other than SC/ST), religion, place and date of birth of both parents, number of bank accounts and spouse’s name and phone number.The exercise will, however, be conducted in the four poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab from November 16, 2026, to January 5 next year ahead of the rest of the country.The self-enumeration portal will go live in these four states on November 16 followed by door-to-door enumeration from December 1.The notification, issued by Registrar General of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, stated, “The census of the population shall be undertaken from January 25, 2027, to February 28, 2027, with a revisional round from March 1 to March 5. There shall be an option for self-enumeration from January 10 to January 24.”The first notification for the population census was issued on June 16, 2025, in which it was stated that the next census will be conducted in February 2027, except for Ladakh and the snowbound areas of Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.The first phase of the census — Houselisting Operations — started in April 1 this year and was completed across the country on September 30, except in Manipur. This is the first digital census and the first to enumerate caste and allow self-enumeration.Other than these states, the exercise has been completed in Ladakh and the snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on September 30.The exercise has been deferred indefinitely in ethnic violence-hit Manipur.