Caste enumeration returns to the Census: the 2025 decision

Since Independence, India's Census has systematically counted Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but it has not counted caste for other communities as part of the Census itself. The last full caste count of the whole population was in 1931, before Independence. In 2011, caste information was collected separately through the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, rather than as part of the Census, and that exercise later drew criticism over the usability of its data.

On 30 April 2025, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided that caste enumeration would be included in the forthcoming Census, Census 2027. The decision reversed the government's earlier position and met a long-standing demand from several political parties and social groups, who argued that policy on backwardness, welfare, and representation cannot be properly assessed without current caste data.

Census 2027 is planned as India's first digital Census, conducted in two phases: house listing and housing, followed by population enumeration. The reference date for most of the country is 1 March 2027, with earlier reference dates for snow-bound and other non-synchronous areas. Caste enumeration is to form part of the population enumeration phase, and the government has described the exercise as a major preparatory undertaking, with training, a pre-test, and administrative arrangements across states and districts.

The decision does not by itself change reservation policy. Any change to reservation percentages, to the categories covered, or to the 50 per cent ceiling discussed in the Indra Sawhney case would still require a separate legal or constitutional step, and the data would need to be collected, cleaned, and published before it could be used in that debate. Critics of caste enumeration have raised concerns about privacy, about how caste identity is recorded when there is no single agreed list, and about whether counting caste entrenches the very divisions policy seeks to reduce.

Supporters respond that caste already shapes access to education, work, and public services, and that refusing to count it leaves policy to guesswork. For civil studies readers, the key point is methodological as much as political: the value of the exercise will depend on how the question is asked, how responses are coded, and how transparently the results are released.