Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday launched the first phase of Census-2027 under the theme “Hamari Janaganana, Hamara Vikas”, formally beginning house listing and housing census operations at a programme held at his official residence in Lucknow. 

The exercise marks the beginning of India’s first digital census, which the State government said would support data-driven planning and welfare delivery. The first phase, running from May 7 to May 21, will allow citizens to self-enumerate online before enumerators begin door-to-door verification across Uttar Pradesh. 

Mr. Adityanath said the census was “not merely a count of population, but a strong foundation for holistic, inclusive and well-planned development”. He said accurate census data would help improve the implementation of infrastructure, education, healthcare, social security and welfare schemes. 

The Chief Minister said the second phase would involve the enumeration of individuals and would include caste enumeration. He added that forest villages would also be covered in the census process for the first time.   

Census operations will be conducted across Uttar Pradesh’s 18 divisions, 75 districts, 350 tehsils, 17 municipal corporations, 745 urban local bodies, 21 cantonment boards, 57,694 gram panchayats and nearly 1.04 lakh revenue villages.   

“Around 5.47 lakh personnel have been deployed for the exercise, including 4.5 lakh enumerators, 85,000 supervisors and 12,000 State and district-level officers. About 5.35 lakh personnel have already been trained for both phases,” said the CM. 

He urged residents to participate actively in the exercise, describing the census as a national responsibility aimed at ensuring that “the last person in society also becomes an equal participant in the stream of development”.