The government has not yet decided how the open-column caste data will be sorted and tabulated

The door-to-door distribution of census forms in Delhi follows the recent Census of India and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. File | Photo credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

More than a month after the Union government announced the questionnaire for the second phase of the 2027 census, finalizing the open-column method of recording caste, officials told The Hindu that a decision is yet to be taken on how the government will sort, tabulate and rationalize the data collected through the method.

Also read | Census 2027: Center announces 40 questions for second phase

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

Experts, opposition parties and associations representing Other Backward Classes criticized the decision to use the open column method, arguing that it was necessary to repeat the results of the 2011 socio-economic caste census, which yielded more than 46 million different caste names. They say successive governments have shelved the report.

A senior government official said discussions on how to make sense of the caste data returned through the 2027 census forms have yet to begin, adding that this will happen as field work on the exercise progresses in the coming months.

Apart from the caste question, which has been introduced in India’s census forms for the first time since independence, the manner of sorting and tabulating data for 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 Census 2027 exercise lists a total of 40 questions, including 13 new questions or data fields that were not part of the previous census (2011). These include a question related to caste and fields for family details, identity documents and COVID vaccinations.

Also Read: Census 2027 Questionnaire Finds Religion of Parents, Place of Birth to Village Level

The government official added that once the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India prepares a holistic proposal for the data sorting method, the file is sent up the chain to the Union Home Minister, after which the government takes a final decision, either at the ministry or Union Cabinet level.

Officials said each Census Bureau department would have to handle the tabulation process for the questions they are responsible for, after which a file on the methodology is handed over to a top bureaucrat at the Interior Ministry.

Speaking to The Hind, Professor GN Devy, a scholar, linguist and cultural activist said that the Census Commissioner’s Office should ideally involve experts in discussions on finalizing the questions, adding that doubts about the method of analysis after data collection would also be addressed at this stage if the government took this approach.

“It seems that the only intention the government has in delaying the finalization of the methodologies after data collection is that they want to delay the release of the data in the name of rationalization,” Mr Devy said.

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

Published – 25 Sep 2026 21:46 IST