Blitz India Business
NEW DELHI: The Centre has notified a set of 40 questions to be asked during the population enumeration phase of Census 2027, including questions on caste, religion, education, employment, migration and other demographic and socio-economic details.
The notification issued by the Office of the Registrar General, India, under the Census Act, 1948, marks a significant change as comprehensive caste enumeration will be undertaken for all communities for the first time since Independence.
The population enumeration will ordinarily be conducted in February 2027. However, in Ladakh and snow-bound nonsynchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the exercise will be conducted from September 1 to 30, 2026. The Government has also provided an option for self-enumeration from August 17 to 31 for these areas, ahead of the house-tohouse population enumeration.
Question number 10 in the Household Schedule specifically asks whether a person belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) or other caste, making caste enumeration a prominent feature of Census 2027.
While previous post-Independence censuses systematically enumerated Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, comprehensive enumeration of castes across communities was not part of the decennial Census. The decision to include caste enumeration in Census 2027 was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs in April 2025.
The Government has said the move will enable the collection of comprehensive casterelated demographic information as part of the population enumeration phase.
The 40-question schedule will collect basic details such as the name of the person, relationship with the head of household, sex, date of birth, age, marital status, age at marriage and spouse’s name.
It will also cover nationality, religion, caste, parents’ details, disability, mother tongue and other languages known, literacy and digital literacy, educational attendance and the highest level of education attained