From the last inhabited village before India's frontier with China, a national count began — and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made sure the country heard about it. In his Mann Ki Baat address, PM Modi highlighted that India's census had been set in motion from Mana village in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, calling participation a national duty. The Chief Minister's Office of Uttarakhand shared the moment on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

Why Mana village was chosen as the census starting point

Mana, nestled in the high Himalayas near the India-China border in Chamoli district, carries deep symbolic weight — it is widely cited as India's last permanently inhabited village before the frontier. Beginning the census enumeration here sends a deliberate signal: no corner of India, however remote, is outside the republic's administrative reach. The choice of Mana for the launch underscores the government's stated commitment to counting every citizen, from the border highlands to the plains.

Census as 'national responsibility' — what Modi said

On his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, PM Modi stated plainly: 'जनगणना हमारा राष्ट्रीय दायित्व है' — 'the census is our national responsibility.' The framing is deliberate. By invoking civic duty on a mass-reach platform, the Prime Minister is mobilising public cooperation at the very start of what will be a sprawling, multi-phase enumeration exercise across the country's 1.4 billion people.

A count long in the making

India's decennial census is governed by the Census Act, 1948, which legally mandates the collection of demographic and socio-economic data across every household. The 2011 Census was the last fully completed exercise, making the current round a landmark administrative event after an extended gap. The Registrar General of India oversees the operation, and provisional population totals are typically the first data released once field enumeration concludes. Every round of census data feeds into electoral delimitation, poverty-line calculations, and the allocation of central funds to states — the stakes for accurate participation could not be higher.

Uttarakhand's border villages step into the national frame

For Uttarakhand, the optics carry a dual message. The state's border districts — including Chamoli — have long sought greater infrastructure investment and administrative attention. Having Mana named on national radio as the symbolic launch-pad of India's census plants the region firmly in the national conversation. It also reinforces the BJP-led state government's alignment with the Centre's broader narrative of 'last-mile' governance reaching the most marginal geographies first.

The census machine is now in motion. Whether the enumeration reaches every household in Mana's rugged altitude — and every urban slum in the plains below — will be the real test of a responsibility the Prime Minister has already called national.