The Congress has been demanding a caste census along with the routine census. (Photo: ANI)
The Congress on Thursday suggested that the government can collect caste-wise data of OBC population in the next census by simply adding an extra column as every such exercise since 1951 has been collecting data on the population of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
The opposition party said such a move would give affirmative action programs a stronger foundation.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a report in The Hindu which said the Union government is yet to take a decision on conducting the next census exercise but there is an active discussion to expand data collection to include caste enumeration.
“India has been conducting a census periodically every ten years. The last such census was due to be conducted in 2021. The continued failure in conducting this 2021 census has meant that vital information needed for economic planning and social justice programmes has not been collected,” Ramesh said in X.
As a result, for example, over 12 million Indians have been denied benefits due to them under the National Food Security Act, 2013 or the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, he said.
There are now reports that the Union Government may carry out this long-delayed and unacceptably delayed census in the next few months, he said.
“Since 1951, every census has been collecting data on the caste-wise population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Without any difficulty, by just adding an additional column, the census questionnaire can also collect data on the OBC population by caste,” he said.
This will meet the widespread demand for a caste census and give a stronger foundation to affirmative action programmes, he said.
“Census” is the 69th entry in the Union List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, which means it is the sole responsibility of the Union Government to conduct a census, Ramesh said.
The Congress has been demanding a caste-based census along with the routine census, claiming that it will pave the way for providing justice to SCs, STs and OBCs.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 22, 2024 | 09:57 IS
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