Concerns over the Census questions

Source: The post “Concerns over the Census questions” has been created based on “Concerns over the Census questions” published in “The Hindu” on 09th September 2026.

UPSC Syllabus: GS-2-Governance

Context: The Census is a statistical exercise undertaken to collect, process and disseminate demographic, economic and social data for policy and planning. The proposed 2027 Census questionnaire contains 40 questions, including several new questions seeking personal details, which has generated concerns about their relevance and confidentiality.

Concerns regarding the 2027 Census

1. Departure from the statistical purpose of Census
   1. The United Nations defines a population census as a process of collecting and analysing demographic, economic and social data for the country.
   2. Several proposed details, such as mobile number, Aadhaar number, Voter ID and passport number, do not appear to generate meaningful statistical tables.
2. Violation of the principle of confidentiality
   1. The UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics require individual data collected by statistical agencies to remain strictly confidential and be used exclusively for statistical purposes.
   2. Collecting identifiable information and subsequently sharing it for non-statistical purposes could undermine this principle.
3. Unnecessary collection of names and family details
   1. Traditionally, names have served only as placeholders for identification during enumeration and have not been maintained in Census databases in India.
   2. Requiring names of individuals and their parents creates difficulties, particularly in hostels, old-age homes, jails and other institutional households.
4. Difficulty in enumerating persons living away from home
   1. Many students live in hostels, as paying guests or away from their normal households.
   2. Since February falls towards the end of the academic year, some students may not be present at their usual households, complicating accurate enumeration.
5. Question on COVID-19 vaccination
   1. COVID-19 vaccination occurred several years before the 2027 Census and vaccination is no longer a major ongoing public programme.
   2. Therefore, information about the place of vaccination may have limited statistical or policy utility.
6. Problems with personal identifiers
   1. Asking for mobile, Aadhaar and Voter ID numbers “if available” creates ambiguity about whether availability means with the individual concerned or with the respondent.
   2. Households where the respondent is an elderly person or a homemaker may not have the identifiers of every family member readily available.
   3. Institutional households may similarly lack the records of their residents.
7. Practical burden on enumerators
   1. With more than 30 lakh enumerators, collecting and correctly recording multiple identification numbers from every household could consume considerable time.
   2. Respondents may also be unwilling or unable to produce such documents, particularly in institutional households.
8. Concerns regarding visitors and domestic servants
   1. Visitors and domestic servants residing in a household during the enumeration period may also fall within the enumeration requirements.
   2. It may be difficult for the household respondent to obtain their sensitive personal details, raising questions about privacy and protection against misuse.
9. Questionable utility of nationality
   1. The question on “nationality as declared” may not accurately identify citizenship because an illegal immigrant could declare themselves to be an Indian national.
   2. India had experimented with this question in the 1951 and 1961 Censuses but discontinued it from 1971 onwards.
   3. Similarly, the US Census decided not to include a citizenship question in its 2020 Census after considerable debate.
10. Bank-account information

1. 1. Asking for the total number of bank accounts may have limited additional value.
   2. If the objective is to identify financial inclusion, simply asking whether a person has a bank account may be sufficient.
   3. Moreover, obtaining accurate responses to the number of accounts may be difficult, especially when respondents are unwilling to disclose such information.

12. Possible linkage with the NPR

1. 1. Information on parents, permanent address and nationality could be useful for preparing or updating the National Population Register (NPR), which is linked to the proposed process of preparing the National Register of Citizens.
   2. This raises concerns that information collected for the Census could potentially be used for another governmental purpose.

13. Legal and federal concerns

1. 1. Census enumerators are appointed by State governments under Section 4(2) of the Census Act, 1948.
   2. Since several States had earlier objected to updating the NPR through the Census exercise, using State-appointed personnel for activities beyond the Census could raise federal concerns.

14. Respondent fatigue and data quality

1. 1. A questionnaire containing 40 questions, many of which require descriptive answers for every household member, can cause respondent fatigue.
   2. Tired or uninterested respondents may provide casual or inaccurate answers, thereby reducing the quality and reliability of Census data.

Way Forward

1. The Census questionnaire should primarily contain questions that have clear statistical and policy utility.
2. Any information required for the NPR or another population/citizen register should be collected through a separate, transparent process having a clear legal basis.
3. The government should provide clear safeguards regarding the confidentiality, storage, access and use of individual information.
4. Questions should be tested for their relevance, feasibility and ability to generate reliable statistics before inclusion.
5. The questionnaire should be kept as simple as possible to reduce respondent fatigue and enumerator burden.

Conclusion: The Census is the foundation of evidence-based governance and public policy. Therefore, expanding it with personal information that has little statistical value may compromise privacy, administrative efficiency and data quality. A clear separation between statistical enumeration and population-register objectives, backed by legal safeguards and transparency, is essential to preserve the credibility of the 2027 Census.

Question: The proposed questions in the 2027 Census raise concerns regarding privacy, relevance, administrative feasibility and the possible use of Census data for purposes beyond statistical compilation. Examine these concerns and suggest a way forward.

Source: The Hindu