🔎 Caste Census: Why We Must Rethink How We Count

India’s next decadal census, slated for 2027, could be the first since 1941 to capture detailed caste data. This exercise is crucial for understanding the socio-economic realities of different groups and designing effective affirmative action policies.

But here’s the problem:

Current census methods — especially during the house listing and population enumeration phases — are ill-equipped to collect accurate caste data. Questions asked today often yield inconsistent, incomplete, or outdated information. For example:

✅ Many respondents don’t know their official caste names.

✅ Different phases (house listing vs. population enumeration) may record contradictory data.

✅ Questions about employment, education, and health often don’t capture caste realities in meaningful ways.

🚨 The risk?

Repeating mistakes from the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census, whose data was riddled with inconsistencies and largely unusable for policy.

What’s the solution?

🔹 Keep house listing focused strictly on structures — don’t ask caste questions during this phase.

🔹 Invest in training enumerators to collect caste data sensitively and accurately during population enumeration.

🔹 Reframe questions so they reflect current social realities, are clear, and help build reliable datasets for targeted interventions.

If done right, a well-designed caste census can become a transformative tool for equity in India. But if we rely on outdated methods, it risks becoming yet another missed opportunity.

💬 What changes would you suggest to ensure a caste census delivers meaningful insights?

#Census2027 #SocialJustice #CasteCensus #AffirmativeAction #PublicPolicy #India #DataDrivenDecisions