India hasn’t seen a census since 2011. The Modi government now plans a major caste census, promising digital data collection to ensure transparency, social clarity, and better policymaking for the country’s future needs.
The Central government on Wednesday said that caste enumeration will now be included in the upcoming national census.
According to report, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said,
“Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided today that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming census.”
However, he did not announce when the census will begin.
The minister said that only the central government has the authority to conduct the census, but some states have still carried out caste-based surveys using their own powers. Vaishnaw claimed that opposition-ruled states have conducted caste surveys for political reasons. He added that it is the Modi government’s firm decision to carry out caste enumeration in a transparent way during the pan-India census.
The Union Minister also targeted the Congress and its allies in the INDI Alliance.
He said,
“Congress governments have always opposed the caste census. In 2010, the late Dr Manmohan Singh said that the matter of caste census should be considered in the Cabinet. A group of ministers was formed to consider this subject.”
He added,
“Most of the political parties have recommended a caste census. Despite this, the Congress government decided to conduct a survey of caste or a caste census. It is well understood that Congress and its INDI alliance partners have used the caste census only as a political tool.”
The minister also spoke about how different states have approached caste surveys.
He said,
“Some states have conducted surveys to enumerate castes. While some states have done this well, some others conducted such surveys only from a political angle in a non-transparent way. Such surveys created doubts in society. To ensure that our social fabric is not disturbed by politics, caste enumeration should be included in the census instead of surveys.”
The national census, which is usually held every ten years, was scheduled for 2021.
However, it got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other logistical issues. The announcement to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census is seen as a major political move by the Modi government. It also weakens one of the major issues raised by the Congress party.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had often questioned the BJP for not releasing the data from the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) conducted during UPA-2’s term. He had accused the Modi government of being afraid of revealing the caste data. Now with this new announcement, the BJP seems to have taken over the issue from the Congress.
But what exactly was the SECC and what happened to it?
Back in 2010, during the second term of the UPA government, allies like the RJD, Samajwadi Party, and JD(U) demanded a caste-based count to be included in the 2011 Census. At that time, neither Congress nor BJP had a clear position. However, some OBC leaders in both parties supported the idea.
The Home Ministry, under P Chidambaram, opposed caste enumeration in the regular Census. The Ministry told the Cabinet,
“Population Census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste. The operational difficulties are so many that there is a grave danger that the basic integrity of the Census data may be compromised and the fundamental population count itself could get distorted.”
Despite the opposition from some ministers, socialist parties in the Hindi belt, whose vote base was largely OBCs, kept pushing for it. These parties also strongly opposed the Women’s Reservation Bill in its earlier form and demanded caste and community quotas within that Bill. Eventually, a debate on caste census was held in Parliament in May 2010. During that debate, although there were internal differences, most leaders, including those from BJP, supported a caste census.
This made the UPA government rethink its stand. The Home Ministry, which was earlier against the idea, softened its view and said that caste enumeration could be done but not as part of the headcount rather at the stage when photographs, fingerprints, and iris scans were being collected for the National Population Register (NPR).
On May 27, 2010, the government set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) led by then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the issue. The GoM could not reach a consensus and asked for the views of all political parties. Eventually, most parties, including BJP, supported caste-based enumeration. In September that year, the government officially decided to go ahead with a caste headcount.
In June 2011, the Ministry of Rural Development began the SECC. This survey aimed to study the social and economic status of around 25 crore rural and urban households. The project was divided into three parts: the rural component was handled by the Rural Development Ministry, the urban part by the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ministry, and the caste data was overseen by the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Registrar General of India (RGI) and the Census Commissioner.
However, the process faced many delays. While data collection was completed by the end of 2012, the data was not ready until late 2013. A UPA minister told that the provisional data was ready by September or October 2013. But since general elections were nearing, the government decided to leave the decision of releasing the data to the next government.
In May 2014, the UPA lost power and the Modi-led NDA government came in. In July 2015, the Modi government released some SECC data related to rural India but held back the caste-related data, saying it had not been finalised.
In 2016, the government told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that it had asked the Registrar General and Census Commissioner to process the caste data and send it to an Expert Group. This group was to be formed by the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Affairs to sort and classify the caste and tribe data.
In March 2018, the government told the Lok Sabha that “certain errors have been observed during processing of the caste data.”
The Home Ministry confirmed that the data was with the Registrar General and Census Commissioner. Later in August, the government informed the Rajya Sabha that processing of caste data was taking time due to certain design issues at the stage of data collection. It also said that the planned Expert Group had still not been set up.
In 2021, responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the Home Ministry said,
“The raw caste data was provided to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for classification and categorisation… As informed by (the ministry), there is no proposal to release the caste data at this stage.”
Later that year, in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Centre ruled out conducting a caste census in 2021.
The government stated,
“Exclusion of information regarding any other caste, apart from SCs and STs, from the purview of census is a conscious policy decision.”
Regarding the SECC, the affidavit added that there were “technical flaws” in how the data was collected. It said that the exercise had recorded 46 lakh different caste names, and “the total numbers cannot be exponentially high to this extent.”
The Centre concluded that “the caste enumeration… was fraught with mistakes and inaccuracies” and “is not reliable.”
Now, with the latest announcement by the Centre to include caste enumeration in the upcoming Census, the government seems to be addressing long-standing demands while also taking control of a politically sensitive topic ahead of key elections.
When will the next Census take place?
In India, the Census serves not only as a data collection process but also as a vital tool for understanding the country’s social, economic, and cultural landscape. As the nation anticipates its next Census, the government has made a significant and historic decision.
The upcoming 16th National Census will be conducted using digital platforms and, for the first time, will incorporate caste-based enumeration. This will result in a comprehensive population document that can inform future policies and initiatives.
Additionally, the Census will be accessible via a mobile app, enabling individuals to input their own and their families’ information. This development is seen as crucial for advancing India’s digitization efforts while ensuring greater transparency and accuracy.
Although the government has not officially set a date for the Census as of April 2025, it is anticipated to occur by the end of 2025 or in 2026. This will mark the first time the Census is conducted entirely through digital methods.
Following a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced at a press conference that caste enumeration will be included in this Census.
He stated, “Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided today that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming census.”
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