Questions On Questions

The Census should explain why it needs to ask for so much personal information

India’s first census under British rule asked 17 questions. The ongoing 16th Census will ask 40. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Information about people helps the government plan for the future — how many schools, hospitals, cities and airports might be needed, for example. It also helps us understand how the country is changing — whether people are becoming more educated, how families are changing, and how many young or old people there are.

But a census is mainly interested in big patterns, not in any one person. For example, if the census asks you how you travel to work, it is not really interested in your answer alone. Your answer becomes one small piece of a much bigger picture: how people across a town, district or state travel to work.

That is why census information has usually been kept anonymous. This is the practice in countries such as the UK, US and Australia. India followed the same approach until 2011. But this time, people will be asked for their mobile number, passport number and Aadhaar number. And we don’t know why.

The government says all census information will be kept private and secure. But the more personal information you collect, the bigger the security risk becomes.

India has already seen serious data leaks. In 2018, Aadhaar details were reportedly being sold on WhatsApp for ₹500. In 2023, there was an alleged CoWIN data leak, while a confirmed breach of an ICMR database exposed the personal details of about 81 crore citizens.

This is also India’s first fully digital census. About 30 lakh phones and tablets will be used by census workers. All these devices and the information on them need to be protected carefully.

But the biggest question is simple: Why does the Census need your phone number, Aadhaar, passport or voter ID?

It is reasonable to ask whether you have a passport. But why does the Census need to record your passport number?

The government should clearly explain why it needs these details and what they will be used for. If the reasons are not convincing, or if the risks are greater than the benefits, some questions should be removed.

When lots of personal details are stored together, someone who gets access to the data could combine different pieces of information to build a very detailed picture of a person. This is sometimes called a “reconstruction attack”.

Neither citizens nor the government would want that to happen.

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