The counting of caste within the 2027 Census has turn into a political flashpoint with the federal government choosing an “open-ended query” format relatively than a drop-down menu, and Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, slamming the choice, saying social justice insurance policies can’t be successfully carried out with out correct information.
The Indian Specific has learnt that two key authorities arms behind the train, Workplace of the Registrar Basic of India (ORGI) and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), weren’t all the time on the identical web page, both.
Sources mentioned Ministry officers expressed their willingness to share the record of OBCs, maintained by the Nationwide Fee for Backward Courses (NCBC), for the caste enumeration exercise at a key assembly on June 1. However the supply, sources mentioned, was not mirrored precisely in an preliminary draft of the minutes of this assembly ready by the Registrar Basic’s workplace.
Following a pushback, the Registrar Basic’s workplace accepted a revised draft from the Ministry.
Sources mentioned the Ministry’s supply was made on the assembly chaired by Registrar Basic of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, and attended by Further RGI Sunil Kumar, Ministry Joint Secretary Shailendra Kumar, and different officers.
On June 8, sources mentioned, the Registrar Basic’s workplace circulated a four-paragraph notice on the assembly. This notice, sources mentioned, said: “Ministry officers knowledgeable that there was no Constitutional mandate to keep up a caste record and, due to this fact, it was not accessible with them.”
In line with the notice, the Ministry mentioned it maintains the notified record of Scheduled Castes (SCs), comprising 1,258 entries, and the Central Listing of Different Backward Courses, comprising 2,483 entries, and these, if wanted, might be offered to the Registrar Basic’s workplace.
The notice, sources mentioned, said: “In view of the absence of any record of castes, enumeration of castes in Census 2027 is probably not attainable utilizing any pre-defined record within the query within the Census 2027.”
Ministry officers advised The Indian Specific that they considered the selection of phrases as a “entice”. “We felt the onus (of not going ahead with a pre-defined record) was being shifted on us,” an official mentioned.
On June 11, the Ministry despatched an amended model of the notice to the Registrar Basic’s workplace. This notice, sources mentioned, said that Ministry officers “knowledgeable that as mandated by the Structure, in relation to castes, it maintains the Listing of Scheduled Caste and Different Backward Courses”. “No separate record of ‘Castes’, apart from the Scheduled Caste Listing and Central Listing of Different Backward Courses, is required to be maintained by the Division. The record of Scheduled Castes comprising 1,258 Entries has already been shared with ORGI vide letter dated September 25, 2025 and the Central Listing of Different Backward Courses, comprising of practically 2,483 Entries, if required, shall be offered to the ORGI,” it learn, in accordance with the sources.
“In view of the absence of any mandate to keep up an inventory of ‘Castes’ apart from the Scheduled Castes Listing and Central Listing of Different Backward Courses, officers from DoSJ&E (Division of Social Justice and Empowerment) had been unable to help additional,” the notice said, in accordance with the sources.
On June 30, it’s learnt, the Registrar Basic’s workplace accepted the revised notes.
RGI Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan and Ministry Secretary Sudhansh Pant didn’t reply to requests for remark from The Indian Specific.
A authorities notification
In line with a authorities notification issued final month, the inhabitants enumeration, together with caste census, shall be performed throughout the nation in February subsequent 12 months. In hilly and snow-bound areas, the train started on September 1 to keep away from difficulties throughout winter.
The federal government maintains that an open-ended response is the one option to conduct the train with out the state itself changing into an arbiter of caste identities. However this selection leaves it with an issue that had sophisticated the 2011 train: the right way to convert tens of millions of particular person responses into dependable, standardised caste information with out showing to find out or alter what respondents have reported.
In line with Ministry sources, the 2027 depend is about to “repeat the failure” of the earlier train, which price about Rs 4,900 crore. With respondents reporting 46.7 lakh distinct caste names, the 2011 Socio-Financial Caste Census (SECC) witnessed an enormous spike from the 4,147 recorded in 1931.
The Census makes use of drop-down lists for notified SCs and STs. The 2011 SECC information was printed by the ministries of Rural Improvement and City Improvement in 2016, however the dataset on caste was excluded. The uncooked information on caste was handed over to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which shaped a gaggle of specialists beneath then NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Arvind Panagariya for classification and categorisation. The information is but to be made public.
The caste enumeration in Census 2027 was permitted by the Cupboard Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) on April 30, 2025. The choice conceded a long-pending demand and reversed the federal government’s place on the difficulty.
In Could 2010, the then UPA authorities had promised caste enumeration together with Census 2011. It later arrange a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look at the query. Performing on the GoM’s suggestions, the Union Cupboard determined in September 2010 to conduct a separate SECC.
Nonetheless, in affidavits filed within the Supreme Court docket on September 21 and December 14, 2021, the federal government mentioned the data collected during SECC 2011 was unusable as a result of it was inaccurate and marked by technical flaws. On December 15, 2021, the Supreme Court docket famous the sensible deficiencies cited within the affidavit. “The actual fact stays that the affidavit filed earlier than this Court docket emphatically states that the information as collated just isn’t correct and is unusable for any objective in any way,” the court docket noticed.
