Forum raises doubts about 2027 Census questionnaire

A national symposium organized by the OBC Rights Party on Sunday raised doubts about the questionnaire used for Census 2027 and also whether a caste census will be conducted along with it.

Speaking to reporters, V. Rathna Sabhapathy, president of the OBC Rights Party, said, “There is no provision in the questionnaire, the 12th question for OBCs, to collect details of OBC communities.” When the Mandal Commission was set up, there were about 3,000 odd OBC communities and in 2011, when the Socio-Economic Caste Census was conducted, many thousands of communities were listed, said a former TNPSC member.

In 2019, Union Minister Rajnath Singh said that a caste census would be conducted and later the Supreme Court was informed that a caste census could not be conducted, he said. “Now they are saying that a caste census will be done. We would like a caste census to be done. But there are many doubts in the questionnaire,” said Mr. Rathna Sabhapathy. Only when the socio-economic conditions of OBCs are known, the reservation to be given to them could be decided, he said.

Responding to a query, Mr. Rathna Sabhapathy further said that the questions in the questionnaire should be such that they should gather information whether the person was an OBC and if so, which community he was a part of and how many family members received higher education and how many of them were in government service.

Published – 12 Jul 2026 23:39 IST