NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has asked President Droupadi Murmu to intervene and have the Union government withdraw the Census (Amendment) Rules, 2026. Party general secretary M A Baby made the appeal in a letter released on October 20.
Baby said the amendments threaten the integrity, impartiality and confidentiality of the Census exercise now underway. He said the Union Ministry of Home Affairs notified the rules on October 16, and asked the President to protect those principles.
The letter said the amendments substantially expand the categories of people who can be appointed as Census enumerators. These now include teachers from aided and unaided private educational institutions, and employees and officials of institutions, societies and trusts.
Officials and clerical staff from public sector undertakings, statutory bodies, banks, companies and other institutions can also be drafted for Census work, the letter said. Baby said the most worrying provision allows any person whom a State government or Union Territory administration considers suitable to be appointed.
Baby said the change raises questions about the criteria for selection, the impartiality of those appointed and the safeguards against partisan interference. He said the discretion given to States and Union Territories, without clear criteria or public safeguards, creates scope for arbitrary and politically motivated appointments.
The Census collects extensive personal information from every household and individual, Baby said. He said people may be reluctant to share such information with those they do not trust. He warned that the information could be used to profile people politically, target communities, question their citizenship or deny them their entitlements.
Appointing private individuals, particularly those with political links to the ruling establishment, erodes the credibility of the exercise, Baby said.
The letter linked these concerns to the questionnaire notified for the second phase of Census 2027 on August 14. Baby said it seeks a wide range of personal information. This includes the religion of parents, bank account details, Aadhaar and other identity documents, passport numbers and mobile numbers.
Baby said the CPI(M) submitted a memorandum to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India on August 24. The memorandum demanded that the collection of these personal details be stopped. It also sought safeguards to keep Census data from being linked with other databases or diverted to other purposes.
Baby referred to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. He said eligible citizens had been excluded through opaque procedures and arbitrary documentation requirements. Collecting sensitive personal data through an expanded and insufficiently regulated network of enumerators was troubling, he said.
The Census is a national exercise that belongs to the people of India, Baby said. He said it cannot be allowed to become an instrument serving the political interests of the party in power or its affiliates. He appealed to the President, as the constitutional head, to intervene urgently and ask the Union government to withdraw the amendments.
The Union Home Ministry amended the Census Rules, 1990 earlier in October. The New Indian Express reported that the changes let States and Union Territories appoint teachers of aided or unaided private bodies, or any other person, as enumerators.
The amendments have drawn criticism from the Congress. Its general secretary Jairam Ramesh described them as a recruitment scheme for workers of the RSS and the BJP, according to reports on October 17.