NEW DELHI: Are you a Kabir Panthi or a Marthomite or a follower of the Hinayana sect or an Ahmadia or a Kuka ? Confused? These are sub-faiths under the rubrics of, respectively, Hinduism Islam and Sikhism Census 2021 may ask Indians to identify not just whether they belong to one of the six broad religious categories – Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist – but also which branch/sect of these faiths they identify with.If the proposal, under discussion at the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (RGI), is accepted, data on India’s religious diversity will be captured across a staggering 49 sub-categories of six major religions of India – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism .Census is a decennial exercise. RGI is gearing up for the 2021 exercise — 2011 was the last one — in the world’s largest democracy and second most populous country and is considering allotting separate data collection codes to sects and denominations. India first collected information relating to citizens’ faith in Census 2001.What this will mean is Census 2021 data will not only show, for example, what proportion of Indians are Hindus or Muslims or Christians but also, under Hindus, the number of Arya Samajis or Lingayats or Meiteis etc, or under Muslims, Sunnis, Shias, Bohras etc, or under Christians, Catholics, Jehova Witnesses, Jacobites etc, provided the respondent chooses to identify with a sub-category.“The idea is to improve accuracy of the data,” a senior RGI official told ET. He spoke off record, saying he’s not authorised to speak to the press. He said the proposal was still being discussed and not yet final. He said that this information was collected earlier too but that sub-identities were not codified. In the proposed new method, each sect and denomination is being given a separate code, so that precise information can be collated.In the proposed new format, the six major religion categories will have codes, as before, and sub-faiths will also have assigned codes.The provisional codes are as follows: Hinduism and its 23 sub-faiths have been assigned codes 101-124; Islam, 5 subfaiths, codes 201-206; Christianity, 9 subfaiths, codes 301-310; Sikhism, 3 sub-faiths, codes 401-404; Buddhism, 5 sub-faiths, 501-505; and Jainism, 4 sub-faiths, codes 601-605.Aside of this, there are codes for Parsis, Jews, tribal religious affiliates, and a code for ‘Other Religion (Please Specify)’.The lack of separate codes produces misleading numbers for sub-faiths, the official quoted above said.In Census 2011, for example, only 573 persons identified themselves as Shias and only 267 as Sunnis.However, ET has learnt there’s an internal debate about the proposal. Many participants at a data users’ conference at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan on April 9 and 10 were reportedly uncomfortable with the new methodology of collecting subfaith data.It was the most debated topic at the conference, attended by former RGI and state census directorate officials and representatives from multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, Unicef and UNFPA, one participant who spoke to ET on condition of anonymity, said. Former census officials reportedly pointed out that the data was extremely sensitive and asking for it could unnecessarily create controversies.Another participant, who too spoke on condition of anonymity, told ET, this data was not “essential for policymaking.” The RGI official quoted earlier said several people were worried about the nature and sensitivity about the data because “religion is always a touchy subject”.Another census procedure reform will, however, proves less debatable. Unlike earlier surveys when information was captured on paper or on specially designed hand-held devices, RGI will use a specially designed app. The RGI official said the app is almost ready and enumerators will be incentivised to install the app in their personal smartphones and capture census data. He said the modalities are being worked out.