The Centre on Friday notified 40 questions, including on “caste”, to be posed to citizens during the population enumeration phase of Census 2027, which will begin in snow-bound areas from September 1.This is the first time since 1931 and the first time in independent India that a query on caste has been included in the Census.One of the 40 questions notified today by Registrar General of India Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan lists “Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Caste”.Sources said the questionnaire was unlikely to carry a list of castes and responses would be recorded as shared by the respondents.The decision to include caste enumeration was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 30 last year.The latest Census 2027 questionnaire notification lists 13 new questions and focus areas that span caste data, financial footprint, digital questions among other data fields.Additional questions include number of bank accounts of citizens, Aadhaar number, mobile number, passport, voter ID, driving licence number, passport number and place of Covid jab.The population enumeration exercise will begin in Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from September 1 to 30. For the conduct of this Census, there will be an option for self-enumeration from August 17 to 31 just before the start of house-to-house population enumeration.While snow-bound areas will be covered first, the population enumeration in the rest of India will begin in February 2027. While this time the citizens will need to simply tick one of the three options — SC/ST/caste — in the previous Census exercise, the related question was — SC/ST (name of the SC/ST).Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, commenting on the notified questionnaire today, said, “It had been widely expected that the caste Q will be asked with a pre-prepared state-wise list as had been done in the Bihar & Telangana caste surveys with the response being just ticked appropriately. This has, unfortunately, not happened raising serious doubts on intent.”The caste enumeration assumes significance as the demand for an updated caste database has gathered momentum over the past few years.The erstwhile Congress-led UPA government had conducted the Socio-Economic and Caste Census in 2011, but did not release the caste data gathered as part of this process.Currently the first phase of census operations is going on — house-to-house enumeration.In the 2011 Census, 29 questions were asked as opposed to 40 this time.Overall the questionnaire will seek information on education and skills, including literacy and digital literacy status, attendance in educational institutions, and the highest level of education attained. Language-related information, including mother tongue and other known languages, will also be recorded.The respondents will be asked whether they worked during the previous year, their occupation, industry or service sector, class of worker and whether they are seeking employment. Information on travel to the workplace will also be collected.The notification further provides for the collection of migration-related data, including place of birth, previous place of residence, reasons for migration and duration of stay at the current location since migration.