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Census 2027 Drops 'Beggars' Category, Adds Parental Details and Migration Reasons
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Moneycontrol•25-08-2026, 09:25
Census 2027 Drops 'Beggars' Category, Adds Parental Details and Migration Reasons
- •Census 2027 will no longer record data on "beggars and vagrants," subsuming the category under "others" due to low and unreliable returns in previous censuses.
- •The change means future Census tables will not provide specific data on the number of beggars, their demographics, or other related parameters.
- •New additions to the questionnaire include "natural calamities" as a reason for migration and fields for "father’s particulars" and "mother’s particulars" to capture their date/place of birth and religion.
- •Parental details, required if parents are not household members or are deceased, could help identify trends in inter-faith marriages, religious conversions, and citizenship criteria.
- •The questionnaire also seeks optional details like mobile number, Aadhaar, voter ID, and Indian passport number, with enumerators trained to assure confidentiality while respecting reluctance to share.
Key Questions Answered
The 'beggars and vagrants' category was removed from Census 2027 because of low returns in the previous Census, with only about 3.8 lakh people identifying as such in 2011. The figures were also considered unreliable due to respondents' reluctance to identify with the category because of social stigma.
The new census will include a question about declared nationality.
Census 2027 will also include questions on caste, employment, migration, education, identity documents, and COVID-19 vaccination status. It will also gather information on parents' particulars, disability, mother tongue, other languages known, and how people travel to work.
