NEW DELHI: The second phase of Census 2027 — involving population enumeration — will, for the first time, capture caste “as declared by the respondent” among its 40 fields, which include new ones such as number of bank accounts, place of Covid vaccination and voter card number.Enumeration by caste will not delve into whether it falls under the other backward classes (OBC) category. However, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will be enumerated as earlier.The questionnaire notified Friday shall also seek name of spouse, parents’ particulars and nationality — elements captured by the National Population Register (NPR) exercise undertaken alongside Census 2011. NPR updation was, however, delinked from Census 2027.The new fields in the list of 40 questions — up from 29 asked during Census 2011 — also include respondent’s nationality as declared, permanent address, mobile-phone number, Aadhaar number, passport number and availability of driving licence. While mobile-phone number, Aadhaar number and voter ID may be shared if available, passport number is required only from an Indian passport holder.Sources told TOI that mother and father’s particulars are likely to capture their names, date of birth and place of birth. While these are key factors that determine citizenship/nationality, their capture will have no impact on individuals since individual census data must remain confidential and cannot be used for “legal evidence, govt benefits or public disclosure”, as per the govt.Sources also said giving a drop-down menu for recording OBC status was not found feasible because states have different castes categorised as OBCs and a mismatch between communities recognised as such by Centre and those at state level. They also pointed to states expanding their respective OBC lists by adding more castes — something that could have created logistical problems once census was under way.Officials told TOI that unlike the socio-economic caste census conducted in 2011 — which had returned around 46 lakh castes, making it unusable — the digital mode of Census 2027 and availability of modern, AI-based tools can surmount compilation and segregation challenges.
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Also, full confidentiality of an individual’s caste declaration is guaranteed by Census Act.TOI was the first to report on Aug 4 that the Phase 2 questionnaire shall capture caste “as declared by respondent”, and, in a first, also capture parents’ date and place of birth.Phase 2 is due to start in UT of Ladakh and snow-bound, non-synchronous areas of J&K, Uttarakhand and Himachal on Aug 17. For the rest of India, it will resume in Feb 2027, culminating in the population headcount with March 1, 2027, as the reference date.
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