Census 2027: Aadhaar, bank accounts, mobile numbers & caste among 40 questions

New Delhi: The Census 2027 will, for the first time, collect personal details such as the number of bank accounts held by individuals, mobile number, Aadhaar number, voter ID number, passport number and driving licence status, alongside caste information.

The details are part of the 40 questions notified by the Registrar General of India (RGI) on Friday. Previous Censuses, including those conducted between 1872 and 2011, did not seek information on documents held by respondents.

The upcoming decadal exercise will also collect caste details from all respondents for the first time since Independence. Earlier Censuses recorded only whether respondents belonged to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe categories.

Respondents are required to answer the questions to the best of their “knowledge or belief”. Enumerators will record the responses digitally, or on paper in unavoidable circumstances.

Under Section 8(2) of the Census Act, 1948, respondents are required to provide the information sought, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in response to a parliamentary question.

The government has not collected caste-wise population data, other than for SCs and STs, in the Census since Independence. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the inclusion of caste enumeration in the upcoming Census on April 30 last year.

The questionnaire will also seek details on marital status, age at marriage, spouse's name, nationality, parents' particulars, disability status, mother tongue and other languages known, literacy and digital literacy.

The fully digital exercise will also collect information on attendance at educational institutions and the highest educational qualification attained.

Rai said individual data collected during the Census would remain confidential and only aggregated data at different administrative levels would be published.

The latest RGI circular also warned that any officer who intentionally asks an “offensive or improper question” during the Census could face punishment, including imprisonment of up to three years upon conviction.

Population enumeration in Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be conducted from September 1 to 30, according to a gazette notification issued earlier this month.

Self-enumeration will be available from August 17 to 31, ahead of the house-to-house population enumeration. In the rest of the country, population enumeration will begin next year.

The decennial Census, originally scheduled for 2021, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Union Cabinet has approved ₹11,718 crore for the exercise.