For the first time in the history of India, the Census will collect data on households headed by transgenders, Home Ministry officials said on Wednesday.
The options listed under the question asking the sex of household head will be ‘male,’' female’ and ‘transgender,’ according to the official notification by the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner.
“It is for the first time that information on households headed by a transgender is being collected,” an official said.
The 2011 Census also included data on literacy, caste and employment of transgender persons, clubbing it under ‘Males.’ It later released the data under a separate heading, according to a
The questions also include information on the house number, building number, the material used for the flooring, condition of the census house, the total number of persons residing in the household as well as the number of married couples living in the household, according to a notification issued by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
The census will also seek information on basic facilities available within the household, including access to and type of “latrine,” water facilities, water waste outlets, access to fuel, access to the internet as well as the main fuel used for cooking.
Apart from gender, the census also has options such as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and ‘Other, the notification said.
The 2021 census will be conducted through a mobile phone application, moving away from the traditional pen and paper, said a PTI report .
For its house listing and housing census exercise, the census will seek information based on 31 questions. The exercise will be carried out from April 1 to September 30.