NEW DELHI: Respondents can answer questions related to their caste based on lists of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for each state, made available through self-enumeration forms, according to the FAQs for the 2027 Census.
“The Census of India has compiled and provided the caste list for all states/union territories. If your caste or tribe name is not included among the caste list for your state/UT, you can select ‘Other’ from the option,” adds the FAQ.
The FAQ emphasizes that every State and UT has its own notified list of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. He did not mention the central list.
A Frequently Asked Questions section has been provided on the Self-Census Portal to help people answer census queries.
The 2027 Census, which will be conducted entirely digitally, is being conducted in two phases starting next month. Census takers will use a special mobile application created for this purpose on their phones to collect information.
The government has informed 33 questions that will be asked to citizens in the first phase – housing list and housing census – starting April 1, 2026. The second phase is the population census.
The FAQ section provides guidance on many difficult questions, including live relationships. “Are a couple in a live-in relationship considered a married couple?” He asks a question. The answer is: “If they consider their relationship to be a stable union, they should be treated as a couple.”
Frequently asked questions range from the materials used for the floors and roof of the house, the source of drinking water, the number of spouses in the household, the gender of the head of the household, and the type of grains consumed by the household – inquiries that form part of the first-stage questions that enumerators will ask citizens.
Another question arises whether an FM-equipped mobile phone should be considered an available “radio”. The FAQ says, “Yes. Record ‘on mobile/smartphone’.”
On Monday, the MHA in a PIB statement announced the list of domiciles for the state and UT and the self-census period. The self-enumeration period, which lasts 15 days before the 30-day period of house roll business, begins in a host of states/union territories, including Odisha, Karnataka, Goa and Lakshadweep, on April 1. Then the earliest census period will begin on April 16.
In a press conference on Monday, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, said India is likely to have the first set of census data ready by next year, much earlier than previous exercises, due to the adoption of digital technology in the largest census exercise on the planet. “Thanks to digital tools, real-time monitoring and automated validation processes, the availability of raw data will be much faster than before,” he said.
He asked people to provide accurate information to census takers, stressing that individual data will remain confidential and cannot be used as evidence or to obtain any benefit under any scheme. “All individual data collected during this process remains confidential. It cannot be shared with any organization, whether government or private, under the Right to Information Act, or used as evidence in court,” Narayan said, referring to Section 15 of the Census Act, which protects the confidentiality of individual data.
“Bengal is yet to issue census notification”
Meanwhile, Narayan pointed out that West Bengal is yet to issue the notification for conducting the census and the issue has been raised with the state heading to assembly elections next month. “West Bengal has not issued a notification to conduct the census. We have raised this issue with them. They are expected to issue the notification soon, as it is a legal procedure. We have time till September 30 for the first phase of the exercise,” he added.
