Census 2025: Government Weighs Open-Ended vs Drop-Down Caste Enumeration

With the population enumeration phase of the nationwide Census just six months away, the Registrar General of India (RGI) is grappling with the methodology for caste enumeration, government sources have indicated. Two broad options are under consideration: allowing respondents to state their caste in an open-ended format or restricting entries to a drop-down menu of recognised castes.

The first option risks a repeat of the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) experience, when more than 46 lakh distinct caste names were listed by respondents. The second option, however, has run into resistance from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which believes a drop-down menu based on existing caste lists would reinforce the caste architecture institutionalised during British rule.

“It is a difficult exercise. There are multiple suggestions and objections, all of which are being considered. Various methods are being tested, including open-ended enumeration and ways to avoid a repeat of the 2011 outcome. Caste is a sensitive subject, and any error can have serious political ramifications,” a government source said.

The caste enumeration will be conducted alongside the population enumeration phase of the Census, which is set to begin early next year. The 2011 SECC failed to produce usable caste data largely due to poor data quality, the absence of a standardised caste registry, and flaws in operational design. As respondents self-reported caste names without verification, the exercise generated nearly 46.7 lakh distinct caste names, compared to the 4,147 castes recorded in the last comprehensive caste census conducted in 1931. The Union government eventually withheld the raw caste data.

Under the drop-down menu proposal, Central and state caste lists would be combined. Many states maintain their own lists of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and other castes that differ from the Central list. Currently, the Census captures castes only for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) through a drop-down menu, while all others are recorded as ‘Others’. The new proposal would either create a separate OBC category or list all castes under ‘Others’ via a comprehensive drop-down menu drawing from both Central and state lists. The RGI would maintain a backend database mapping each caste to the appropriate classification.

An RSS functionary expressed unease with this approach. “What we have today is largely a caste architecture created and institutionalised by the British. If the Census relies on those very lists, it will end up further entrenching a structure that, in our view, was deliberately used by the colonial administration to keep Indian society divided.” The RSS has long argued that while caste identities existed in India, British Census operations transformed relatively fluid and localised social identities into rigid, legally recognised categories, thereby weakening broader Hindu social cohesion.

“It is an issue that is likely to create problems whichever way it is done. But the government has made a commitment to conduct caste enumeration, and it will be done. The RGI will find the best possible method,” another government source said.