Census phase 2 to begin Aug 17, will capture caste, parents’ birth details
Phase 2 (Population Enumeration) of the 16th Census — Census 2027 — begins on August 17 in the snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Ladakh, the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, ahead of the main national round.
For the first time since 1931, the enumeration schedule will record caste details of respondents, alongside standard fields such as name, age, sex, marital status, religion, education, language, disability, migration, occupation and fertility particulars.
The exercise will also capture the date and place of birth of a respondent's parents, as declared by the respondent, and will voluntarily collect Aadhaar and passport numbers to strengthen digital linkage of records.
The final enumeration questionnaire is yet to be formally notified; the government has indicated it will be released ahead of the main phase.
Census 2027 will be conducted digitally for the first time and will follow a two-phase structure — Houselisting and Housing Census, followed by Population Enumeration.
Constitutional and Statutory Basis of the Census
Conducting the Census is a Union subject, listed at Entry 69 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution, which gives Parliament exclusive legislative competence over it under Article 246. The actual statutory machinery is provided by the Census Act, 1948, enacted shortly after Independence, which empowers only the Central Government to conduct the Census and makes furnishing of correct census information a legal obligation, while treating individual-level data as strictly confidential and non-disclosable except in aggregated form.
Key Details
- Census is a Union List subject (Entry 69), giving the Centre exclusive authority; states have no independent power to conduct a general population census.
- The Census Act, 1948 provides the legal framework; census operations are supervised by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGI), an office under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Individual census schedules are confidential under the Act and cannot be used as evidence in courts or disclosed to third parties, including other government departments, in personally identifiable form.
- India has conducted a decennial census since 1881 (uninterrupted since 1881, with the 2021 round postponed due to COVID-19); Census 2027 will be the 16th census and the first fully digital one.
Phase 2 (Population Enumeration) of Census 2027 is the operational stage governed by this framework — the RGI's office is notifying the schedule and questionnaire, and the confidentiality guarantees under the 1948 Act are what allow sensitive fields like caste and parental origin to be collected without breaching the respondent's privacy protections.
Caste Enumeration: 1931 Census vs SECC 2011 vs Census 2027
British India's 1931 Census, conducted under Census Commissioner J.H. Hutton, was the last count to publish a full national enumeration of caste populations. Post-Independence censuses (1951 onward) restricted caste-related counting to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes only, on administrative-practicability grounds, so no updated all-India caste headcount data existed for policy purposes. The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, conducted separately from the regular Census under a different administrative mechanism (Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, not the RGI), attempted to fill this gap but its caste dataset — which recorded roughly 46 lakh distinct caste/sub-caste entries — was found riddled with errors and was never officially released.
Key Details
- 1931 Census: last full official enumeration of caste at the national level.
- SECC 2011: first attempt at caste enumeration since 1931, but conducted outside the regular decennial Census framework and its caste data was never published.
- Census 2027 will be the first time caste is enumerated as part of the regular decennial Census (under the Census Act, 1948 framework) since 1931.
- SC/ST population figures have continued to be published every decade in the regular Census; it is enumeration of "other" (general and OBC) castes that has been missing since 1931.
Phase 2's inclusion of a caste column in the standard population enumeration schedule closes the 96-year gap in officially validated, RGI-administered caste data, distinguishing this exercise from the earlier, separately administered and unpublished SECC 2011.
New Data Fields — Parental Birth Details and Digital IDs
Recording the declared date and place of birth of a respondent's parents is a new addition to the enumeration schedule, intended to build multi-generational demographic and migration profiles. Voluntary collection of Aadhaar (a biometric-based unique identity number issued under the Aadhaar Act, 2016) and passport numbers reflects the shift toward a "digital census," enabling de-duplication and administrative linkage, but collection is on a voluntary, non-mandatory basis to avoid conflating identity-document verification with census enumeration.
Key Details
- Aadhaar is issued under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, administered by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
- Providing Aadhaar/passport numbers during Census 2027 is voluntary, not compulsory — non-provision cannot lead to exclusion from enumeration.
- Census 2027 uses a mobile app-based, paperless data collection method for the first time, replacing the traditional paper schedule.
These fields are being introduced specifically in the same questionnaire notified for the Phase 2 population enumeration beginning August 17, making the digital and genealogical dimensions of Census 2027 a testable departure from earlier census rounds.
- Census 2027 Phase 2 (Population Enumeration) begins August 17 in snow-bound/non-synchronous areas (Ladakh, J&K's snow-bound tracts, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand), ahead of the main national round (scheduled for early 2027 elsewhere).
- Census 2027 will be India's 16th Census and its first digital census.
- Last full national caste enumeration: 1931 Census.
- SECC 2011 was the first caste-count attempt since 1931 but its data was never officially published.
- Census is a Union List subject under Entry 69, Seventh Schedule, conducted under the Census Act, 1948, administered by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
- Aadhaar and passport number collection during Census 2027 is voluntary.