Congress Demands Clarification After Centre Omits Caste From Census Notification

New Delhi: The Union government on Monday issued a formal notification for India’s long-delayed 16th national census, to be conducted in two phases starting late 2026. Reacting to the same, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh sharply criticised the announcement, calling it a “damp squib” for its silence on caste enumeration, despite previous indications that the upcoming census would mark a historic shift by including caste data for the first time in independent India. 

According to the Home Ministry’s notification, the census will use March 1, 2027, as the reference date for most states and Union territories, while October 1, 2026, will be used for snowbound areas in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The exercise, the first in 16 years due to the COVID-19 delay of the 2021 census, will be conducted using mobile applications by 34 lakh enumerators and 1.3 lakh supervisory staff. 

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This will be the eighth census since independence and the first to incorporate caste-based data since the British-era 1931 census, potentially. However, Monday’s Gazette notification makes no mention of caste enumeration, a fact that led to immediate backlash from the Congress. 

Ramesh also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reversing his stance, recalling how BJP leaders had previously dismissed demands for a caste census, even labelling Congress MPs as “urban Naxals” for raising the issue in Parliament and the Supreme Court. “Is this yet another U-turn by the ustad of U-turns? Or will details be announced later?” he asked. 

“Today’s Gazette Notification is, however, SILENT on the inclusion of caste in the 16th Census,” the Congress leader said.

The much-touted Gazette Notification on the 16th Census to be conducted in late 2026/early 2027 has just been issued. It is quite a damp squib and merely repeats what had already been announced on April 30, 2025.

It is entirely because of the persistence and insistence of the… pic.twitter.com/RCSNWNo2nN

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) June 16, 2025

The Congress has been vocal in demanding that the 2027 census adopt the Telangana model, which enumerates caste and also captures detailed socio-economic indicators disaggregated by caste. 

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While the government had earlier hinted that caste would be part of the data collection, the absence of any reference to it in the official notification has led to concerns over whether it will be fully implemented or politically diluted. 

The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990.