In a major decision, the central government on Wednesday announced that a caste census would be carried out as part of the forthcoming national population census.
The decision, taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), was announced by Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at a press briefing.
Vaishnaw said the census comes under the purview of the Centre but some opposition-ruled states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys for political reasons.
“Some states have done this well, while some others have conducted such surveys purely from a political angle in a non-transparent way. Considering all these facts and to ensure that a social fabric is not disturbed by politics, caste enumeration should be transparently included in the census instead of surveys," the minister said.
It was Modi government's resolve to transparently include caste enumeration in the forthcoming pan-India census exercise, he said.
The minister noted that caste was not included in all the census operations conducted since independence. “In 2010, the then prime minister Manmohan Singhji had assured the Lok Sabha that the matter of caste census would be considered in the cabinet,” he said.
“A group of ministers was formed to consider this subject. Most political parties recommended a caste census. Despite this, the Congress government decided to conduct only a survey of caste instead of a census”.
The Congress and several other opposition parties have been demanding a caste census for the last several years.
The national population survey was to begin in April 2020 but got delayed due to Covid-19 outbreak.