The story so far: The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RG&CCI) on August 14, 2026, notified a set of 40 questions for Population Enumeration — the second phase of Census 2027.The Population Census exercise is done in two phases: the Housing and House Listing Operations (HLO), and Population Enumeration, spanning over 11 months. The HLO phase is to be concluded by September 30 across the country. Barring few States such as West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Tamil Nadu, the HLO phase has been concluded elsewhere.The Population Enumeration will be done in whole Union Territory of Ladakh and snow-bound areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from August 17-September 30, ahead of the rest of the country where the exercise will be conducted in February 2027.Why is the second phase significant?The 40 questions notified by the RG&CCI, among others asks will ask the respondents to record their “caste”. This is the first time caste will be enumerated in Independent India, other than that of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste.The Census 2027 schedule will include 13 new questions or data fields that were not part of the Census 2011 questionnaire. Census 2011 had 29 questions.How will caste be recorded?Question number 10 of the Census schedule reads: “Scheduled Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST)/ Caste.” Officials said that enumerators will record the caste as declared by respondents in an open field rather than selecting from a pre-prepared list. Similar methodology was used during Census pre-tests conducted in 16 States and Union Territories in July.This approach has drawn criticism from the Congress, which argues that an open-ended format may create data-quality challenges.The concern stems from the experience of the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC), which generated more than 46 lakh caste names because of variations in how people identified and described their caste. The Union government has previously cited these inconsistencies as a reason for not releasing SECC caste data.What are the new questions being added?The 2027 Census will introduce 13 new data fields not present in the 2011 exercise. Among them are: