Census: Six months to go, government explores how to count caste

“It is a difficult exercise. There are multiple suggestions and objections, all of which are being considered. Various methods are being tested, including open-ended enumeration and ways to avoid a repeat of the 2011 outcome. Caste is a sensitive subject, and any error can have serious political ramifications,” a government source said.

The caste enumeration will happen along with the population enumeration phase of the Census, which will start early next year.

The 2011 SECC failed to produce usable caste data largely because of poor data quality, the absence of a standardized caste registry and flaws in operational design. Since respondents could self-report caste names without verification, the exercise generated an administrative nightmare. The final dataset contained nearly 46.7 lakh distinct caste names, compared with the 4,147 castes recorded in the last comprehensive caste census conducted back in 1931.

The Union government eventually withheld the raw caste data.

As per the drop-down menu proposal under consideration, Central and state caste lists would be combined, with many states maintaining their own lists of OBC and other castes that differ from the Central list.

At present, the Census captures castes only for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The Census enumeration application already contains a drop-down menu for notified SC and ST communities, while all others are recorded simply as ‘Others’.

As per this proposal, there would be a separate OBC category or all castes would be listed under the ‘Others’ category through the comprehensive drop-down menu, drawing from both Central and state lists. The RGI would maintain a backend database mapping each caste to the appropriate classification.

An RSS functionary said the Sangh was uneasy with this. “What we have today is largely a caste architecture created and institutionalised by the British. If the Census relies on those very lists, it will end up further entrenching a structure that, in our view, was deliberately used by the colonial administration to keep Indian society divided.”

The RSS has long argued that while caste identities existed in India, British Census operations transformed what it sees as relatively fluid and localised social identities into rigid, legally recognised categories. According to this view, repeated colonial enumeration thus weakened broader Hindu social cohesion by making caste a permanent administrative identity.

“It is an issue that is likely to create problems whichever way it is done. But the government has made a commitment to conduct caste enumeration, and it will be done. The RGI will find the best possible method,” another government source said.