Govt Affirms Caste Enumeration Will Feature in 2027 Census Despite Speculation

The Union government has refuted widespread misinformation on social media that misleads people into believing that caste enumeration will not be included in the 2027 Census.

While dealing with the situation on Monday evening through social media platform X, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) urged people to exercise caution and cross-check facts from authentic sources.

It said, "Always depend on reliable sources for correct information," urging people to avoid considering unverified online posts.

In a follow-up post, PIB reaffirmed the government’s stance, writing: "The Government has already announced that the Caste enumeration will be conducted along with Census 2027. Please see the details below: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2136515."

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on June 15 held a high-level review of preparations for the upcoming Census. The high-level meeting was attended by Union Home Secretary, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, and other senior officials.

The official notification releasing the conduct of the Census was published in the Gazette on Monday.

The Census will be conducted in two rounds. The first, Houselisting Operation (HLO), will collect information on housing situation, assets, and amenities in the household. The second round, Population Enumeration (PE), will collect comprehensive demographic, cultural, socio-economic, and other individual data from each household.

Data on caste will also be collected during this enumeration.

To undertake this vast exercise, the government intends to employ approximately 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors, in addition to 1.3 lakh Census officers.

This will be India's 16th national Census and the eighth since the country gained Independence.

For the first time, the Census will be done online, through a mobile app. Citizens will also be able to self-enumerate.

Strict data protection measures will be implemented for maintaining security during data collection, transmission, and storage processes.

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs also intervened to clarify mischievous misinformation about the caste aspect of the Census.

This clarification was done after the Congress party expressed concerns, positing that the Gazette notification did not have caste enumeration and questioned whether the Centre had gone back on its stance. In reply, the government said, "The notification to take the census has been issued, in the Official Gazette today. The census will have caste enumeration too."

Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary with responsibility for Communications, called on the government to follow Telangana's example—not just to enumerate castes, but to gather detailed socio-economic statistics by castes.

The Gazette states that the Census reference date would be October 1, 2026, in snow-affected areas like Ladakh, and March 1, 2027, for the rest of India.

This exercise represents the first Census based on caste after Independence. The previous comprehensive caste count was done by British rulers from 1881 to 1931. In the post-Independence period, caste figures were left out of official Census activities.

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided on April 30 to include caste count in the 2027 Census.