"Census 2027 questionnaire finalised with caste and Aadhaar fields included"
Census Act, 1948
statute empowering the Registrar General of India to conduct decennial population enumeration
Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC)
2011 parallel survey that yielded over 46 lakh caste names, deemed statistically unusable
India's decennial Census is governed by the Census Act, 1948, which vests authority in the Registrar General of India (RGI), operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs, to collect comprehensive demographic data. The Census has been conducted every ten years since 1881, and its outputs underpin resource allocation for hospitals, schools, welfare schemes, and the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies. Caste was enumerated in every Census from 1881 to 1931 under British administration — the 1931 Census recorded 4,147 distinct caste names and remains the last comprehensive caste count in India's history. After Independence, the Constituent Assembly made a deliberate policy choice: only Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), identified through Presidential Orders under Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution, would be counted. Other Backward Classes (OBCs) were excluded, reflecting the constitutional aspiration to transcend caste as a social organiser.
This exclusion created a persistent data vacuum. The Mandal Commission (1980) was compelled to estimate OBCs at 52% of the population using 1931 data — a figure contested ever since. The 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) attempted to fill this gap but used an open-ended methodology that yielded over 46 lakh caste names, rendering the data statistically unusable — a failure the Centre admitted before the Supreme Court. Census 2027, delayed from its scheduled 2021 cycle due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is now the most significant attempt since 1931 to resolve this data vacuum.
The finalisation of 40 questions for Census 2027 — including dedicated fields for caste and Aadhaar details — marks a structural departure from all post-Independence Censuses. For the first time, caste enumeration will be integrated into the main Census exercise rather than conducted as a parallel, methodologically weaker survey. This integration gives the caste count the statutory backing of the Census Act, 1948, ensuring legal enforceability of responses and standardised enumeration protocols that the 2011 SECC lacked.
The inclusion of Aadhaar as a data field is equally significant. Linking Census records to Aadhaar numbers enables de-duplication, reduces ghost beneficiaries in welfare schemes, and creates a live, updatable population register — effectively operationalising the National Population Register (NPR) framework. The Aadhaar Act, 2016 governs the use of Aadhaar data; the Supreme Court's Puttaswamy judgment (2018) established that Aadhaar linkage must be proportionate and cannot be made mandatory for non-welfare purposes. …
Consider the following statements:
1.'Aadhaar' metadata cannot be stored for more than three months.
2.State cannot enter into any contract with private corporations for sharing of Aadhaar data.
3.Aadhaar is mandatory for obtaining insurance products.
4.Aadhaar is mandatory for getting benefits funded out of the Consolidated Fund of India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
How many Delimitation Commissions have been constituted by the Government of India till December 2023?
With reference to Census 2027, consider the following statements:
1.It will be the first Census since Independence to include caste enumeration with statutory backing under the Census Act, 1948.
2.The 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data was officially adopted as the basis for OBC welfare targeting.
3.Aadhaar details are included in the Census 2027 questionnaire to enable de-duplication of beneficiary records.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
The Mandal Commission (1980) estimated OBCs at 52% of India's population. Which of the following best explains why this estimate has been contested for decades?
With reference to the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and the Supreme Court's Puttaswamy judgment (2018), which of the following statements is correct?
Assertion (A): The Supreme Court's 2024 judgment in Punjab v. Davinder Singh creates a constitutional demand for empirical caste data from Census 2027.
Reason (R): The judgment held that states may sub-categorise SC/ST reservations based on evidence of relative intra-category backwardness, which requires updated, nationally-standardised caste enumeration data.
Which of the following is correct?
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