Census trainers flag queries on Aadhaar, caste, age and birthplace of parents as key challenges

At a large hall being used for a training session for Census enumerators in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday (October 29, 2026), a field trainer explains the importance of Question Number 37, which seeks the respondent’s Aadhaar number.

“If any respondent creates an issue, they need to be told that the particular question is only to find out how many people have an Aadhaar. They are to be told clearly that we are not seeking their bank account details and Aadhaar cannot be used without biometrics anyway,” the trainer announces on a microphone as more than 50 enumerators, mostly school teachers, listen with rapt attention.

This is one of hundreds of training sessions being carried out across Uttar Pradesh and three other poll-bound States, before they begin door-to-door enumeration on December 1, for the second phase of Census 2027. The rest of the country will undergo the same exercise in February 2027. In preparation for the challenging task ahead, trainers flag the thorniest questions, including new queries on caste, age and place of birth of parents, and of course, Aadhaar.

The Aadhaar-citizenship link

At one particular session attended by The Hindu — whose precise location has been withheld to protect the identity of Census officials — the trainer suggests that enumerators offer hesitant respondents an interesting incentive to coax them to share their Aadhaar data.

“At present, there is no single document that proves citizenship. If we get the accurate information during Census, then in the future, this document may act as a proof of citizenship,” the trainer says, adding that any information provided during the Census is confidential.

The government has consistently maintained that Aadhaar is not a proof of citizenship, and a senior Census official told The Hindu that “no such instructions” have been passed to the trainers.

“There is no instruction to link Aadhaar with citizenship test. The question is optional, if a person says that he or she has or even does not have Aadhaar, it will be recorded as such. The enumerator will ask for the Aadhaar number and if the respondent does not want to provide the details, the question can be skipped. The particular field trainer may have had some misconception,” the Census official said.

Slew of new queries

This population enumeration phase involves 40 questions, and enumerators must spend at least 20 to 25 minutes with each respondent, unlike the first houselisting operations phase which only took a few minutes each. Each enumeration block comprises around 750 to 800 people.

There are 13 questions being asked for the first time: caste (other than Scheduled Tribe/Scheduled Caste), religion, place and date of birth of both parents, number of bank accounts, spouse’s name, nationality, digital literacy, permanent residential address, place of Covid-19 vaccination, passport number, driving licence availability, and mobile, Aadhaar, and voter ID numbers, if available.

Caste, a sensitive question

Another question that enumerators were told to be cautious about was Question Number 10 C, which asks the caste of the respondent.

“You have to manually write the caste, as what is being told to you, there will be no drop box with options. It is a sensitive question and your job is not to argue or do any kind of commentary on the issue. You have to navigate this question in a sensible way,” the field trainer tells the enumerators. To a pointed question from the audience, the trainer responds, “There will be no separate column for OBCs [Other Backward Classes].”

Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who can choose the names from a pre-determined drop box, all others will have to type the caste name in an open column. This is independent India’s first caste enumeration. Question Number 10 (C) says: “If not SC/ST in this State/UT-Enter Caste name.” There are two other options: “Does not want to declare Caste”, and “No Caste.” The data fields on caste are marked “mandatory.”

Age estimation method

The trainer also explains to enumerators how they are to determine the age of the parents of elderly respondents.

“For senior citizens, who may not remember the date of birth of their parents, an estimation method may be applied. The age can be approximately calculated by taking into account the age of their siblings, etc. If the place of birth is in India, then the details are also to be recorded,” the trainer says.

This is India’s first digital Census, meaning that around 34 lakh enumerators, including private individuals, will capture respondents’ data using an app on their personal phones.

Mirroring NPR rehearsal

The explanation given to enumerators regarding Aadhaar data collection also assumes significance as the new questions included in Census 2027 mirror those asked during the rehearsal of the National Population Register (NPR) in 2019.

The NPR, which was initially proposed to be updated with the first phase of the Census has been put on the back-burner due to stiff opposition from political parties and civil society members, who said the data could be used to create a countrywide National Register of Citizens (NRC). The NPR, first prepared in 2011 and updated in 2015, already has the family-wise database of 119 crore residents.

The debate around citizenship and what documents are needed in order to be called an Indian citizen was reignited when the Election Commission of India (ECI) decided to conduct a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, starting with Bihar in June 2025. Besides cleaning and updating the voter rolls, one of the stated objectives of the SIR was to weed out illegal migrants, a mandate of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The ECI, during a hearing in the Supreme Court last year, said that Aadhaar is only a proof of identity, not of citizenship. It was not listed among 11 documents for inclusion in the voter rolls during SIR.

The first house listing operations phase of the Census was completed across the country on September 30, except in Manipur, where the Census has been deferred indefinitely.