Multiple Surveys to Map Panjab & India

April

2026

Panjab has started its first-ever Drug and Socio Economic Census across the state. 28K employees have been deployed to conduct a survey of 6.5M families across 13,236 village councils. The exercise will map land ownership, income levels, social indicators across caste groups, and data on drug use within households, including the type of substances consumed. The census will be completed within three months. The exercise will cost USD 27M, for which the state government has diverted 28,515 high-end 5G smartphones, procured under the union government's Mission Saksham Anganwadi (child care scheme) and Poshan 2.0 (food scheme). Meanwhile, Panjab Chief Electoral Officer Anindita Mitra said on 4 Apr that the state is awaiting the notification from the Election Commission of India to begin the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists. The state has already mapped 74.27% of Panjab’s electors against the last intensive revision records. To ensure transparency, political parties have already appointed over 8K Booth Level Agents across Panjab. Until now, SIR has been conducted in 12 states, raising significant concerns regarding potential mass disenfranchisement, particularly for marginalized groups, migrants, women, and fears that the process is being politicized for electoral gain. Alongside, the National Census—2027 will start in Panjab from 15 May. The census is a USD 1.24B exercise in which more than 3M Indian officials will spend a year surveying 1.4B Indians about their household composition, living conditions, and access to basic amenities. The last Indian census was conducted in 2011. This census was due in 2021 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving India’s demographic, housing, and welfare data outdated. Comprehensive caste data has not been collected since 1931, and India completely halted the caste census in 1951 to prevent 'social divisions,' as the government at the time said. This time, under pressure from the Opposition, the caste enumeration will take place in the second phase of the census. There are worries about how the census will be used due to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s pledge to implement a National Register of Citizens, which would contain the names of Indian citizens and is meant to identify and deport undocumented immigrants.