Government yet to decide how open-column caste data will be sorted, tabulated

More than a month after the Union government notified the questionnaire for the second phase of the 2027 Census, finalising an open-column method to record caste, officials told The Hindu that a decision is yet to be taken on how the government will sort, tabulate, and rationalise the data collected through this method. 

Also Read | Census 2027: Centre notifies 40 questions for second phase

Under this method, people who are not from the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes can enter their caste names in an open column. This is unlike other modes of enumerating castes, wherein people have to choose from a list of castes, a method used by the Bihar and Telangana governments in their caste surveys. The open-field method also allows people to opt for a “no-caste” option; they can also choose not to disclose their caste name.

Experts, Opposition parties, and associations representing Other Backwards Classes have criticised the decision to use the open-column method, arguing that it is bound to repeat the results of the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census exercise, which yielded over 46 lakh different caste names. Successive governments had shelved that report, they say.

A senior government official said that discussions on how to make sense of the caste data returned through the 2027 Census forms have not yet been initiated, adding that this will happen as the fieldwork on the exercise progresses over the coming months.

Apart from the caste question, which has been introduced in India’s census forms for the first time since Independence, the method of sorting and tabulating the data for the other new questions is also in various stages of discussion within the Office of the Census Commissioner.

13 new questions

The second phase of the 2027 Census exercise lists a total of 40 questions, of which 13 are new questions or data fields that were not part of the previous census (2011). These include the question on caste and fields for family particulars, ID proofs, and COVID vaccinations.

Also Read: Census 2027 questionnaire seeks parents’ religion, place of birth up to village level

The government official added that once a holistic proposal is prepared by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India on the method for sorting the data, this file is sent up the chain to the Union Home Secretary, following which the government will take a final decision, either at the level of the Ministry or the Union Cabinet.

Officials said that each division of the Census office would have to handle the tabulation process for the questions that they are responsible for, after which the file on this methodology is forwarded to the top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Speaking to The Hindu, scholar, linguist, and cultural activist, Professor G.N. Devy said the Office of the Census Commissioner should have ideally included experts in the discussions on finalising the questions, adding that doubts about the method of post-data collection analysis would have also been addressed at this stage, had the government taken this approach.

“The only intent the government seems to have in delaying the finalisation of post-data collection methodologies is that they want to postpone releasing the data in the name of rationalisation,” Mr. Devy said.

The second phase of the census has already begun in several hilly and remote regions, such as Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, and the remaining parts of Uttarakhand are scheduled to begin the second phase in November this year. For the rest of the country, the second phase will start in February 2027.