Congress flags ‘serious’ concerns over Census 2027 data collection
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New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday alleged that the Census 2027 exercise had been “totally perverted”, questioning the government’s intent and raising concerns over several questions proposed for the population enumeration.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh made the remarks in response to a media report that said the government’s decision to advance the Population Enumeration phase of Census 2027 in four poll-bound states, along with the inclusion of several new questions in the Census schedule, had raised concerns among some former Census officials.
According to the report, the former officials questioned the quality of the data likely to be collected and expressed concern over potential links between the Census, the National Population Register (NPR) and, eventually, the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
In a post on X, Ramesh said, “Census 2027 has got totally perverted.”
“Its intent is very dubious & content at times worthless (like the caste Q), at times superfluous since data sets already exist (like vaccination) and at times diabolical (like names, religion, place of birth, etc of a person's parents),” he said.
The Congress had on Wednesday also criticised the government’s decision to use open-ended questions instead of a drop-down list in the current format of the caste census.
The party termed the move a “very serious flaw” and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted the caste census process to “fail”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have jointly written to Prime Minister Modi, seeking that the caste census be conducted in what the party described as the “right manner”.
In their August 20 letter, Kharge and Gandhi had raised objections to the ongoing process of conducting the caste census and reiterated the party’s key demand for changes to the exercise.