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The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has approved the enumeration of caste in the next Census, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday. The Union government did not announce when the exercise would take place.
The Union minister alleged that the Opposition Congress and its allies had used their demand for a caste census “only as a political tool”.
“Congress governments always opposed caste census,” Vaishnaw said at a press conference. “Caste was not included in all the census operations conducted since Independence.”
The Socio Economic and Caste Census conducted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in 2011 to enumerate caste was a survey and not a Census, Vaishnaw said.
Data relating to castes in the Socio Economic and Caste Census was not made public.
The Opposition has been demanding a nationwide caste census. The proponents of such an exercise argue that it will help identify the true population of the country’s Other Backward Classes and other castes, in turn paving the way for policies such as expanded quotas.
Vaishnaw added that the Census came under the purview of the Union government and the exercises some states had conducted to enumerate castes were surveys.
“Some states have done this well, while some others have conducted such surveys purely from a political angle in a non-transparent way,” said the Union minister. “Such surveys have created doubts in the state”.
Bihar and Telangana have released their caste survey data. Jharkhand has said it will conduct its caste survey in the financial year 2025-’26.
Vaishnaw added: “Considering all these facts, and to ensure that our social fabric is not disturbed by politics, caste enumeration should be transparently included in the Census instead of surveys. This will strengthen the social and economic structure of our society while the nation continues to progress.”
The last decennial census exercise was held in 2011. In 2020, India was set to begin the first phase of the exercise – in which housing data is collected – but the Covid-19 pandemic forced its postponement.
Several allies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party including the Telugu Desam Party, Union ministers Chirag Paswan and Ramdas Athawale, and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar have backed demands for a caste census.
Also read: Why the BJP has softened its stance on caste census
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