Overview
- The Centre has confirmed that caste will be collected during the population‑enumeration phase of Census 2027 using an open‑ended electronic field where enumerators will record respondents’ caste answers verbatim, a plan publicised in mid‑August 2026.
- Opposition leaders including Jairam Ramesh and Rahul Gandhi say the absence of a pre‑defined drop‑down list replicates the government’s own 2021 advice that a registry would be ideal and have accused the administration of undermining the census.
- Technical experts and editorials warn this approach will reproduce 2011 SECC problems, when open responses produced roughly 4.67 million distinct caste names and the Centre withheld raw outputs because the data were unusable.
- OBC organisations and some lawmakers are demanding consultations and unique caste codes before enumeration, and reports say the questionnaire includes options such as “does not want to declare caste” and “no caste” while the caste text field is marked mandatory.
- Beyond data quality, critics cite risks to confidentiality from new micro‑questions and predict political consequences if groups believe counts understate their numbers, while officials must still decide how to standardise and publish usable caste statistics.