Will delaying the Census affect its implementation?

On June 16, the Registrar General of India under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification that India’s population will be counted in 2027. Following demands by the Opposition parties, among other reasons, the government has also announced the inclusion of caste enumeration in the Census for the first time in independent India. The last Census was held in 2011. The exercise was to take place in 2021, but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has now been further pushed to 2027. Will delaying the Census affect its implementation? Sanjay Kumar and Poonam Muttreja discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Vijaita Singh. Edited excerpts:

Sanjay Kumar, Co-Director of Lokniti, a research programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi; Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India