India yet to settle method for tabulating open-ended caste census data
The Union government has not decided how caste responses collected through an open-column format in India’s 2027 Census will be sorted and tabulated, officials told The Hindu. The method allows respondents outside Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to enter caste names, choose “no caste” or decline to disclose their caste.
India’s Union government has not yet finalised how caste information gathered through the open-column format in the 2027 Census will be sorted, tabulated and rationalised, officials have told The Hindu. The format allows people who are not members of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes to enter their caste names in an open field. Respondents can also select a “no-caste” option or choose not to disclose their caste.
The method has drawn criticism from experts, Opposition parties and organisations representing Other Backward Classes. They argue that it could reproduce the problems of the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census, which produced more than 46 lakh different caste names. A senior government official said discussions on interpreting the caste data had not begun.
The official said the issue would be considered as fieldwork progressed over the coming months. The census questionnaire’s second phase contains 40 questions, including 13 new questions or data fields not included in the 2011 exercise. These cover caste, family particulars, identity documents and COVID-19 vaccination.
The official said the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner would prepare a proposal for sorting the data. The proposal would then move to the Union Home Secretary before a final decision by the ministry or Union Cabinet. Scholar and linguist G.N.
Devy said experts should have been involved when the questions were finalised. He argued that this might have addressed uncertainties about analysing the information after collection. The second phase has begun in some remote and hilly regions.
It is scheduled to start in November in several states and in February 2027 across the rest of the country.
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