Rama Krishna Sangem
Finally the demand of t he opposition Congress as well as that of some OBC organisations for conducting caste census at the national level has been conceded by the Government of India, The Union Cabinet which was chaired by Prime Minister Modi in Delhi on April 30, Wednesday has agreed to include caste details of people in the next round of general census which are expected to begin 2026. This is expected to reveal major social and economic realities in the country.
Caste census will be incorporated into the national census, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw said on April 30. Addressing a Cabinet press briefing, Vaishnaw said, “Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) has decided today that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming census.”
Commenting on the discourse around caste census, Vaishnaw criticised the opposition INDIA bloc for trying to use it as a political tool, stating, “It is well understood that Congress and its INDI alliance partners have used the caste census only as a political tool. Some states have conducted surveys to enumerate castes. While some states have done this well, some others conducted such surveys only from a political angle in a non-transparent way.”
“Such surveys created doubts in society. To ensure that our social fabric is not disturbed by politics, caste enumeration should be included in the census instead of surveys,” he added. “Caste enumeration should be transparently included in the census instead of the survey,” the minister said.
OBCs welcome this move” : Chiranjeevulu, IAS (Retd)
Telangana BC Intellectuals Forum president T Chiranjeevulu, retired civil servant, welcomed the union cabinet’s decision to go for caste census in the next round of national level exercise. “If this move is implemented, it will be first of such exercise to find out details of caste background of people in the country after 1931, almost a century back,” he said, talking to Excel India. He and his team at the forum held several meetings at the national and state levels to press this demand for sometime.
Chiranjeevulu said that finding out caste details is like holding an X Ray to a person to know her or his health. “Similarly, we will know the exact social, economic and political background of people particularly BCs in India. Only after this, we can take remedial measures to improve their conditions,” he said.
National level census which will be held as per Census Act 1948 are the only right way to find out the status of BCs in the country. Though some states including Telangana have conducted caste surveys they were not authentic and doubts-free in view of the political controversies around them. Telangana CM Revanth Reddy and Dy CM Bhatti too have been demanding caste census at the national level for long. NDA ally, JD(U) led by CM Nitish Kumar too is a vocal supporter of caste census at the national level.
