Census 2027: Centre notifies 40 questions for second phase

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Among the notable additions are questions on the place of Covid-19 vaccination, the total number of bank accounts, and identification-related details such as mobile number, Aadhaar number, voter ID number, passport number and driving licence availability, where applicable | Photo Credit: R.K. Nithin

The Union government on Friday notified 40 questions, which among others will ask the respondents to record their “caste” during the population enumeration exercise, the second phase of Census 2027 . This is the first time that caste will be enumerated in independent India, other than that of Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs).

The Census 2027 schedule will include 13 new questions or data fields that were not part of the Census 2011 questionnaire. Census 2011 had 29 questions.

The questions that have been added for the first time are — spouse’s name, nationality, father’s particulars and mother’s particulars, digital literacy, permanent residential address, place of Covid-19 vaccination, number of bank accounts, passport number, driving licence availability and mobile, Aadhaar and voter ID numbers, if available. Some of these questions such as particulars of mother and father, Aadhaar, mobile, voter ID and driving license details also featured in the rehearsal form of National Population Register (NPR) in 2019. NPR, initially proposed to be done with the first phase of Census, has been put on the backburner due to stiff opposition by political parties and civil society members as the data can be used to create a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

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Question number 10 on the Census schedule reads “Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST)/Caste.” Officials said that the enumerator will record the caste as declared by the respondent as it is an open column. As reported by The Hindu on July 6 , the rehearsal, or the “pre-test” for the population enumeration phase, was conducted from July 1 to 20 in 16 States and Union Territories, where respondents, other than the reserved categories, recorded their castes in an “open column”, or the enumerator noted a resident’s caste as declared by them. The Congress party said the caste enumeration methodology “raises serious doubt on intent”.

Responding to The Hindu ’s report, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X: “It had been widely expected that the caste Q will be asked with a pre-prepared Statewise list as had been done in the Bihar & Telangana caste surveys with the response being just ticked appropriately. This has, unfortunately, not happened raising serious doubts on intent.”

The open column methodology had resulted in the 2011 Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) returning over 46 lakh different “caste names”, largely owing to the difference in what people understand by caste.