NEW DELHI - India's first census in 15 years aims to fill a critical gap in its population data, but questions about caste are meeting resistance, raising doubts over how accurately the exercise can capture the country's social divisions.
More than 3 million census workers are gathering information on the world's most populous nation, home to over 1.4 billion people, using digital technology in an exercise that could reshape government policy and political representation.
The census includes the first comprehensive caste count since 1931, when India was under British colonial rule. The government aims to use the findings to guide affirmative action measures, including quotas for lower-caste communities in government recruitment and university admissions.
But workers say some households have been reluctant to answer even a preliminary question about caste.
"I felt awkward asking, unsure of how they might react," said Alok Aggarwal, 53, a laboratory assistant at the District Institute of Education and Training in New Delhi. He said some people lied while others ignored the question.
Aggarwal spent about a month visiting roughly 250 households from May. One of the first phase's 34 questions asked whether respondents belonged to a Scheduled Caste, a designation for communities historically treated as "untouchables" at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
"Some families reacted strongly against the questions," said Seema Rai, 58, a school principal who also worked on the census. "It is unclear how accurate their responses were."
The census is divided into two phases. The first, which ran from April to September this year, covered housing facilities, household heads and access to infrastructure such as water and electricity.
The second, scheduled for February next year, will focus on individual information, including age, sex and employment status. It will also establish the number of people belonging to each caste.
For workers collecting the data, the shift to digital technology has brought practical difficulties alongside the sensitive questions.
Having worked on an earlier census, Aggarwal said a major change was a smartphone app that allowed responses to be transmitted immediately.
"We did have the app on our phones, but using it wasn't feasible," Aggarwal said, citing poor internet connectivity and slow data entry.
"In some areas, simply standing there with a mobile phone carried the risk of it being snatched away," he said. "That's why carrying paper forms was easier."
The work also took a physical toll. Some enumerators collapsed in New Delhi's extreme May heat, while colleagues were attacked by dogs during their rounds.
India normally conducts a census every decade, but the count due in 2021 was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Updating the outdated figures on which government decisions depend had become an urgent task.
Population data are also used to redraw electoral constituencies, giving the exercise potentially significant political consequences.
A former chief minister of a southern state who opposes Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested the timing of the census was politically motivated.
Without transparency and accuracy, the findings could deepen social divisions.
