The story so far: The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) on August 14, 2026, notified a set of 40 questions for Population Enumeration — the second phase of Census 2027.
Question number 10 of the Census schedule reads: “Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST)/ Caste. Similar methodology was used during Census pre-tests conducted in 16 States and Union Territories in July. Because of variations in how people identified and described their caste, the concern stems from the experience of the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), which generated more than 46 lakh caste names.
Officials said that enumerators will record the caste as declared by respondents in an open field rather than selecting from a pre-prepared list.
The Union government has previously cited these inconsistencies as a reason for not releasing SECC caste data.
“Only aggregate data is released, an individual’s data cannot be shared with States or even the judiciary and do not also come under the purview of the Right to Information Act (RTI). This approach has drawn criticism from the Congress, which argues that an open-ended format may create data-quality challenges. The inclusion of personal identifiers and administrative details has renewed a broader debate about privacy and the relationship between the Census and other government databases. Census data cannot be used to provide reservation benefits to any individual,” Mr. The State governments maintain their own OBCs list.
The NPR has details of family wise database of 119 crore usual residents of the country and the data can be shared with government agencies and States, unlike the Census data. On March 30, RG&CCI Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, while addressing a press conference said that as per the Census Act 1948, the Census data is confidential and the respondents are to answer to the best of their knowledge. There are about 2650 Other Backwards Classes (OBC) in the Central list, 1170 in the Scheduled Caste category and 890 communities in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list, according to the latest government data.
Narayan said, adding that Census data is beyond “scope of investigation. The Ministry of Home Affairs said representations had been received from various organisations and State governments regarding caste enumeration, and that the final questionnaire would be prepared according to established procedures.
