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Census 2027 - Caste methodology
February 2 , 2026
19 hrs 0 min
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- The Census will be done in two phases, with the House listing and Housing Census (HLO) to be held from April to September 2026 and the PE in February 2027.
- The methodology to be followed for caste enumeration in the forthcoming Census is yet to be finalised.
- The Caste count will be held during the Population Enumeration (PE) phase, the second phase of the Census, in February 2027.
- Only in September 2027, the Population Enumeration phase kicks off in Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
- This will be the 16th Census and the first in independent India to count all castes, other than the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST).
- The 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) was done outside the purview of the Census.
- The caste will be enumerated this time in the second and final phase, giving it statutory backing.
- The SECC enumerated more than 46 lakh castes, while the total number of castes during the pre-Independence 1931 Census was 4,147.
- This will also be the first time that Census data is captured digitally, on smartphones and mobile apps.
- And it will be the first time when citizens will be able to self-enumerate through the portal.
- The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India notified 33 questions for the HLO phase on January 22.
- Question number 12 in the questionnaire was: “Whether the head of the household is Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/Others.
- Question 12 does not explicitly involve Other Backward Classes (OBC) and General categories.
- The 2011 schedule or the questionnaire for the HLO phase also had the same question at serial number 15.
- The details of the SC/ST column were filled in the second phase through the Centrally approved list.
- While the OBC list can be maintained both by the State and the Centre, SC/ST names are only maintained by the Central government.
- According to the latest government data, there are about 2,650 Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the Central list, 1,170 in the Scheduled Caste category and 890 communities in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list.
- Whether the “Other” column will have a merged Central and State OBC list or a list of unreserved categories of caste is yet to be decided.
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