{
  "id": 5204641,
  "title": "Note on caste census meeting rewritten after Social Justice Ministry pushback",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/note-on-caste-census-meeting-rewritten-after-social-justice-ministry",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-03T00:12:25.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Indian Express",
    "slug": "the-indian-express",
    "url": "https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/note-on-caste-census-meeting-rewritten-after-social-justice-ministry-pushback-10860920/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The upcoming 2027 Census in India has become a highly contentious issue, with the government opting for an open-ended question format for caste enumeration rather than a drop-down menu. Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have criticized this decision, asserting that accurate data is essential for the effective implementation of social justice policies. According to sources, two key government bodies involved in the census, the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI) and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE), had differing opinions on the matter.\n\nThe Ministry offered to share the list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), maintained by the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), for the census exercise. However, this offer was not properly reflected in the initial draft of the meeting minutes prepared by the Registrar General's office. Following pushback from the Ministry, the Registrar General's office accepted a revised draft. A note circulated on June 8 stated that the Ministry maintained lists of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), but there was no pre-defined list of castes available for the census.\n\nThe Ministry felt that the wording in the note was a \"trap,\" implying that the responsibility shifted onto them for not providing a pre-defined list. On June 11, the Ministry sent an amended version of the note, clarifying that it maintains the List of Scheduled Castes and the Central List of Other Backward Classes. No separate list of castes, other than these two, is required to be maintained by the Department.\n\nThe Registrar General's office accepted the revised notes on June 30. The Census is scheduled to take place in February of the following year, with hilly and snow-bound areas starting the enumeration on September 1 to avoid winter difficulties. The government maintains that an open-ended response is the only way to conduct the exercise without becoming an arbiter of caste identities. However, this choice has complicated the 2011 Census, as millions of distinct caste names were reported.\n\nThe Ministry has expressed concerns that the 2027 count may repeat the failures of the 2011 SECC, which cost around Rs 4,900 crore. With 46.7 lakh distinct caste names reported in the 2011 SECC, there is a risk of a similar spike in the 2027 Census.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "Ministry initially offered OBC list for census, not reflected in draft",
    "Ministry revised note clarifying responsibility for caste list",
    "Census scheduled for February 2027, with winter-area enumeration starting Sept 1"
  ],
  "editors_take": "The revised note on caste census meeting minutes signals a win for the Social Justice Ministry, which had pushed back against wording that implied it was responsible for providing a pre-defined caste list.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}