The demands for a caste census to enumerate the population of not just SCs and STs but other castes, too, are getting louder. The Centre on Tuesday said three state governments - Bihar, Maharashtra and Odisha, and a few organisations have demanded collecting details of all castes in the forthcoming census.
Last month, the Nitish Kumar-led cabinet gave the nod to conduct a Bihar-specific caste census in the state from January 7 to May 2023 and allocated Rs 500 crore. However, the Centre indicated that it was not in favour of a caste census as part of the decadal census, which has already been delayed by two years. It didn't specify the date for the start of the Census 2021.
In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said the Union government has not enumerated caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the census since independence. He said the intent of the government for conducting Census 2021 was notified in the Gazette of India on March 28, 2019.
However, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the conduct of Census 2021 and the related field activities have been postponed until further orders.
Cutting across party lines, Rajya Sabha members on Tuesday supported a bill for recognising the Gond community hailing from four districts of Uttar Pradesh as ST after excluding them from the SC. Several opposition MPs demanded a countrywide caste-based census.
During the debate, Manoj Jha of the RJD said the government should go for a caste-based census and in the meanwhile also implement 52 per cent reservation for the backward communities. L Hanumanthaiah of the Congress and Jayant Chaudhary supported a caste-based census.
Bihar's bicameral legislature passed two unanimous resolutions, in 2018 and 2019, in favour of a caste-based count.