Special Correspondent: The Indian authorities have announced that the population enumeration for the Census of India 2027 in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in September 2026 for snow-bound areas and February 2027 for the plains.

The House Listing Operations (HLO), the first phase of the census, will begin across India in April 2026, with Ladakh’s HLO scheduled for June. The Population Enumeration (PE) phase will be carried out digitally, incorporating mobile apps for field staff and self-enumeration options for residents.

The Director of Census Operations, Amit Sharma, stated that the census timeline has been adjusted to account for extreme climatic conditions in snow-bound areas. For the first time since 1931, the census will include caste enumeration—a move critics fear will be exploited to distort Muslim population figures across India and in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Observers warn that New Delhi may exploit the census to further marginalize Kashmiri Muslims, consolidate demographic engineering policies, and legitimize its illegal control over the territory, deliberately undermining Kashmiri rights and aspirations under international law. They have called for the population enumeration to be conducted under the strict supervision of international observers to ensure transparency and prevent manipulation of Muslim population figures.