New Delhi (TIP): The Union government on Friday, Aug 14, notified 40 questions, including a query on caste for the first time in independent India, to be asked of respondents for population enumeration in the Census, whose self-enumeration phase kicks off from August 17 in four snow-bound regions.
The order from Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan notified 11 questions more than the 2011 Census, the last time the exercise was conducted in India. Among the new questions were those asking for parental details, and others on passports, Aadhaar, Voter ID and mobile number, driving licence, and Covid-19 vaccination details, and permanent residential address –– which raised privacy concerns.
The question on caste was listed as question number 10 in the notification –– as “scheduled caste/scheduled tribe/caste” –– in open ended format, which means Census officers will record the caste of a person as declared, without any requirement to match it to pre-prepared lists.
This holds similarities to the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census, whose caste data was never released due to irregularities in caste entries. In states that have conducted the caste survey successfully –– such as Bihar in 2023 –– the enumerators carried pre-declared lists of castes and matched the caste and sub-caste mentioned by the respondent to the list generated by the government.
This is the first time since British rule that all castes are being enumerated in the Census. Till now, only scheduled castes and scheduled tribes were demarcated separately in the census.
The door-to-door population enumeration in Ladakh and specific snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, will take place from September 1 to 30. The self-enumeration in these regions begins on August 17. The enumeration in the rest of the country will be done next year.
The Census is being conducted using digital tools for the first time, with data collection undertaken using a dedicated mobile application as well as the traditional door-to-door enumeration process.
Originally scheduled for 2021, the Census was initially postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Data collection is targeted to conclude by March 1, 2027, but officials say the collation and publication of results will take two to three years. The exercise is likely to stamp India’s status as the world’s most-populous nation.
The census questions were notified in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Census Act, 1948.
“…the central government hereby instructs and directs that the census officers may, within the limits of the local area for which they have been respectively appointed, ask all such questions of all persons residing within such limits, subject to the items enumerated below, for collecting information through the household schedule in connection with the Census of India 2027,” Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said in the notification.
He said that respondents will be asked personal information such as name, relationship to the head (of family), sex, date of birth and age (in completed years), current marital status, age at marriage (in completed years), spouse name, nationality as declared, disability, mother tongue and other languages known, religion, caste or tribe among others. Source: HT
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