Amit Shah unveils mascots ‘Pragati’ and ‘Vikas’ for India’s first digital census

New Delhi: Ahead of the 2027 Census starting on April 1, Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday launched four digital tools for the country’s first digital census and unveiled two census mascots – female enumerator ‘Pragati’ and male enumerator ‘Vikas’. The four digital platforms include a self-enumeration portal that will allow respondents to submit household information online within 15 days before field operations begin in their respective states/UTs, another first. They can enumerate themselves in 16 languages. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement that the mascots “Pragati” and “Vikas” will become the friendly images of the 2027 census and also symbolize the equal participation of men and women in achieving the determination to make India a developed country by 2047. Through these mascots, messages, objectives and key messages related to the 2027 Census will be disseminated to all levels of society in an effective and citizen-friendly way.The four advanced digital platforms soft-launched by Shah on Thursday were developed by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). These include the House List Block Creator (HLBC) app, the House List Operations (HLO) mobile app, the Self-Enumeration Portal, and the Census Management and Monitoring System Portal (CMMS).A Home Office spokesperson said this calibrated adoption of technology combines innovation with inclusivity to ensure the 2027 Census remains accurate, secure and comprehensive.HLBC is a web mapping application that enables supervisors to digitally create blocks of housing listings using satellite imagery to ensure standardized geographic coverage across the country. HLO is a secure, offline mobile application for enumerators to collect and upload house listing data. It enables direct data transfer from site to server, eliminating traditional paperwork. All house listing data will be collected through this app, which can only operate using registered mobile numbers. The app is compatible with Android and iOS platforms and can be operated in 16 regional languages.The Self-Enumeration Portal is a secure, web-based facility that allows eligible respondents within households to submit their household information online up to 15 days prior to the start of field operations. After successful submission, a unique self-enumeration ID (SE ID) will be generated. The SE ID will be shared with enumerators, who can verify the information against the ID. CMMS The portal is a A centralized web-based digital platform designed to plan, manage, execute and monitor all census-related activities across administrative levels. Officials at divisional, district and state levels can track enumeration progress, field performance and operational readiness in real-time through integrated dashboards.Census data will be collected door-to-door via a secure mobile app. The participation of 3 million enumerators, supervisors and other census officials across the country will ensure comprehensive coverage.The launch of the Census 2027 mascot and digital platform was attended by several senior officials, including the Union Home Secretary, Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner.The Center had notified its intention to conduct the 2027 census on June 16, 2025, more than five years after the decennial census was suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 2027 Census will be conducted in two phases and is the largest census exercise in the world. While the first phase of census, housing and house registration will take place between April 1 and September 30, 2026, with states being free to choose a period of 45 days during this six-month period, the census phase is likely to take place in February 2027. In the first phase, data on housing conditions and household amenities will be collected, while in the second phase demographic, social and economic details of every person in the country will be recorded.The reference date for Census 2027 will be 00:00 on March 1, 2027, for all states and Union Territories, except for Ladakh UT and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the reference date will be 00:00 on October 1, 2026.