Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday welcomed the Centre's decision to include caste enumeration in the next census, calling it a delayed but right move.
She said the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been demanding a caste-based census for long and expressed hope that the BJP-led Centre will implement the decision in a timely manner.
In a post on X, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said: "The Centre's decision today to conduct a 'caste census' along with the regular population census is a step taken in the right direction, though delayed. I welcome it." "BSP has long been demanding this. Hopefully, the government will ensure timely execution of this decision to link 'census with public welfare'," she added.
In a major decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre on Wednesday decided to include caste enumeration in the next census exercise in a "transparent" manner.
Announcing the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the census comes under the Centre's purview but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys.
Alleging that the states ruled by opposition parties have got the caste surveys conducted for political reasons, Vaishnaw said it is the Narendra Modi government's resolve to transparently include caste enumeration in the next pan-India census exercise.
The census exercise was to commence in April 2020 but got delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.