{"id":1890,"date":"2026-09-04T08:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/09\/04\/india-2027-census-open-column-method-obr-lists-dropped\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:31:22","slug":"india-2027-census-open-column-method-obr-lists-dropped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/2026\/09\/04\/india-2027-census-open-column-method-obr-lists-dropped\/","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s 2027 Census to Use Open-Column Method, Dropping OBC Lists, Officials Say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"9fece8afa224fd09e54b043d0febfb58\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- NR ATF -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8898941184964366\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4839033563\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Union government has decided that the forthcoming 2027 Census will record caste information using an open\u2011column format rather than relying on the Central or State lists of Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Officials briefed to The Hindu explained that the decision emerged after deliberations revealed that OBC lists are not pure caste registers but contain entries that describe social classes, occupations and other non\u2011caste groups.<\/p>\n<h2>Why OBC Lists Were Set Aside<\/h2>\n<p>According to senior officials, the Central and State OBC lists include several entries that do not correspond to distinct castes. Examples cited include groups described as \u201clocal borns\u201d in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, occupational categories such as \u201cbegging\u201d, and specific labour classes like tea\u2011garden workers in Assam. These entries, officials said, would not qualify as castes under an enumeration framework that aims to capture only caste identities.<\/p>\n<p>Both the Central and State compilations contain such anomalies, but they represent a minority among the nearly 3,000 communities classified as OBC. Moreover, the same community may appear as OBC in one state while being classified as Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) in another, further complicating any attempt to use a uniform list for national caste counting.<\/p>\n<h2>Open\u2011Column Method Chosen After High\u2011Level Review<\/h2>\n<p>Officials noted that the government examined several methodological options, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. After weighing these alternatives at the \u201chighest levels\u201d, the open\u2011column approach was finalised. Under this system, respondents will write the name of their caste in a free\u2011text field, allowing the enumeration of \u201call other castes\u201d beyond the SC and ST categories, which continue to be recorded using the established Presidential lists.<\/p>\n<p>The open\u2011column method has drawn criticism from opposition leaders and scholars. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, among others, have called for a specific list of OBC communities to be enumerated, arguing that a free\u2011text approach may not yield reliable data. They question the utility of the open column, suggesting that it could replicate the outcomes of the 2011 Socio\u2011Economic Caste Census (SECC), which recorded more than 46 lakh distinct caste names. The Modi administration previously cited the SECC\u2019s unwieldy volume of entries as a reason for not releasing its caste data.<\/p>\n<h2>Historical and Legal Context<\/h2>\n<p>A 2015 document from the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) addressed whether an OBC community could be classified based solely on caste. The commission concluded that \u201ca caste can be and quite often is a social class in India\u201d and that caste, as an identifiable social group, can serve as a starting point for broader classification into sections and classes. This observation underscores the longstanding ambiguity between caste and class in Indian social taxonomy, a nuance that informed the current decision to avoid using OBC lists for census purposes.<\/p>\n<p>In the political backdrop, the Union Cabinet of the third Narendra Modi\u2011led government approved the inclusion of caste questions in the 2027 Census forms a year after the BJP lost its majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The opposition had campaigned vigorously for a caste census, arguing that the OBC population \u2013 currently estimated using data from the 1931 caste census \u2013 needed an updated count. The cabinet\u2019s approval reflects a compromise: while caste data will be collected, it will be done through an open\u2011column mechanism rather than a pre\u2011defined list.<\/p>\n<p>Government officials emphasized that the decision to retain the traditional enumeration of SC and ST communities using Presidential lists remains unchanged. The open\u2011column field will apply only to \u201call other castes\u201d, a category that includes OBCs, other backward groups and any caste not covered by the SC\/ST lists.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition figures and several scholars warned that the open\u2011column approach could generate a proliferation of caste names similar to the SECC experience, potentially complicating data analysis and policy formulation. Nonetheless, officials maintained that the method was chosen after a comprehensive review of alternatives and that its implementation will be overseen at the highest administrative levels.<\/p>\n<p>The shift away from OBC lists highlights the government\u2019s effort to balance the technical challenges of caste enumeration with political pressures for greater granularity. By treating caste as a self\u2011identified attribute rather than a pre\u2011compiled classification, the 2027 Census aims to capture a more accurate snapshot of India\u2019s complex social fabric while avoiding the pitfalls of mismatched class\u2011caste categorizations.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Officials confirmed that the 2027 Census will enumerate castes through an open\u2011column approach, abandoning the use of Central and State OBC lists that mix castes with occupational and class categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[1909,1907,1910,1753,1908],"class_list":["post-1890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-caste-enumeration","tag-census","tag-government-policy","tag-india-politics","tag-obc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsraise.com\/in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}