Caste enumeration in Census 2027 marks a break from post-Independence practice. Examine its implications for social justice and policy design.

Since Independence, the Census has counted only SCs and STs. The last full caste count was in 1931 [1]. In April 2025 the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs decided to count every caste in Census 2027, which will also be India's first digital Census [1][2]. This ends a 75-year-old policy. How much it does for social justice will depend on how the data is collected and coded.

Implications for social justice

• Evidence for reservation: Articles 15(4), 16(4) and 340 depend on data about backwardness. Caste counts can test the 50% cap set in Indra Sawhney (1992) against real population shares.
• Fairness within the OBC group: Data for each caste makes sub-categorisation possible, which was the Rohini Commission's task. The most backward groups could then get a fair share of the 27% quota.
• Recognition: Small and nomadic communities become visible to the state.
• Risk: Exact counts may harden caste identities and lead groups to compete with fresh quota demands.

Implications for policy design

• Targeting: Linking caste data with socio-economic data helps aim scholarships, housing and credit schemes at the right people.
• Federal coherence: One national dataset that is comparable across states can replace separate state surveys such as Bihar's (2023).
• Method risk: Census 2027 records OBC and General castes in an open column, where people write their caste themselves [3]. When SECC 2011 used a write-in field, it produced about 46 lakh caste, sub-caste, surname and clan names. An expert group had to be set up afterwards just to classify them [4]. This is why OBC groups now want a drop-down menu and a unique code for each caste [3].
• Trust: If the coding is unclear or the data is released late, people may stop trusting the results.

Way forward

• Publish a caste coding dictionary before the count begins, built from the Central and State SC/ST/OBC lists.
• Use a mixed design: the app suggests caste names as the enumerator types, but respondents can still write freely.
• Let State Backward Classes Commissions check how local names are matched to codes, and fix a date for releasing the caste tables.

Caste enumeration can move social justice from guesswork to evidence: fairer quotas, better-targeted welfare and visibility for those left out. Agreeing the codes in advance, keeping the process open and releasing data on time will help it serve the Preamble's promise of social justice and SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) without reopening old divisions.