The government on Friday notified 40 questions, including one about the respondents’ caste, for the population enumeration (PE), the second phase of the Census 2027, which begins in Ladakh and snowbound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on August 17. For the rest of the country, the population enumeration will be conducted in February 2027.
Data collection is targeted to conclude by March 1, 2027. Originally scheduled for 2021, the Census was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It said the 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. Census officers will ask questions on migration, such as the birthplace, place of last residence, reason for migration, duration of stay in this village/town since last migration, and permanent residential address, according to the notification. Officials said the collation and publication of results will take two to three years.
The move came ahead of the assembly polls in Bihar, where caste enumeration was on top of the Opposition’s agenda. The Opposition pushed for a caste census in what was widely seen as an effort to break the coalition forming the bulk of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s support base. A landmark caste survey conducted in Bihar showed backward communities make up nearly two-thirds of the state. This is the first time caste will be enumerated in Independent India, other than that of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs cleared the decision to include caste enumeration on April 30 last year. The Census questions were notified in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Census Act, 1948. Earlier reporting noted: Question number 10 on the Census schedule reads “Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST)/Caste. Earlier reporting noted: The notification, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs under the Census Act, 1948, authorises census officers to collect information through the household schedule from every person residing in their assigned areas.
“…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,” Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan said in the notification. Earlier reporting noted: Census 2027 to have 40 questions, including details of caste, COVID vaccination, ID proofs The Union Government on Friday (August 14, 2026) notified 40 questions, which among others asks will ask the respondents to record their “caste” during the Population Enumeration exercise, the second phase of Population Census 2027 . Officials said that the enumerator will record the caste as declared by the respondent as it is an open column.
