New Delhi: The office of the Registrar General of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has notified the questionnaire for the Household Schedule for the Census of India to be held in 2027.The questionnaire has a list of 40 questions ranging from parents’ details, whether a person is working, the place where they received the Covid-19 vaccination and total number of bank accounts, as per the notification dated Friday (August 14).After the consistent demand by opposition parties for a caste census, the questionnaire also includes a question on the caste.The Wire had earlier reported that caste details as stated by the respondents will be noted instead of selecting from the list of caste added in the database. Any variation in the spellings or nomenclature will make it harder for the compilation of caste survey, say experts.The choice of an open-ended format is likely to produce problems similar to those encountered during the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census, when respondents were allowed to report their caste without being restricted to a standardised list. That exercise produced nearly 46.7 lakh distinct caste names, compared with 4,147 castes recorded in the last comprehensive caste census in 1931. The Union government subsequently withheld the raw caste data.The 40 questions also include queries on name of the person, relationship to head of family, sex, date of birth and age (in completed years), current marital status, age at marriage (in completed years), spouse name, nationality as declared, religion, father’s particulars, mother’s particulars, disability, mother tongue and other languages known, literacy and digital literacy status, status of attendance in educational institution, highest educational level attained and stream/discipline and if the person has worked any time during last year.The notification issued by MHA about the questionnaire for the household schedule of 2027 census. Photo: The WireOther questions include details of work for marginal, semi-marginal and non-worker, travel to place of work, birth place, place of last residence, reason for migration, duration of stay in this village/town since last migration, permanent residential address, number of children surviving at present (for currently married, widowed, divorced and separated women only), number of children ever born alive (for currently married, widowed, divorced and separated women only), number of children born alive during last one year (for currently married women only), place of Covid-19 Vaccination, total number of bank accounts, mobile number (if available), Aadhaar number (if available), voter ID number (if available), passport number (if Indian Passport holder) and availability of driving license.