Telangana state assembly adopts resolution asking Centre to count OBCs in census

The Telangana assembly on Friday adopted a resolution unanimously, pleading the Narendra Modi government to include enumeration of the other backward communities as part of the decennial census of India.

Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao sponsored the resolution at a time when there is a growing chorus across the country to count the people belonging to Other Backward Castes i.e., apart from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

"For the upliftment of the unprivileged sections of the society, it is essential to maintain their accurate demographic data. These statistics help in proper planning of various welfare measures to aid their development,” Rao said while introducing the resolution in the house.

1931 was the last time a caste wise census data was collected in the country.

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The Modi government had in its previous term favored a OBC headcount. In 2018, the then home minister Rajnath Singh had stated that the 2021 census would collect data on other backward castes.

However, the Centre last month told the Supreme Court that holding a caste census of the backward classes would be "administratively difficult and cumbersome." The government also stated that exclusion of such information from the census purview is a 'conscious policy decision."

In an affidavit submitted in the SC, the Centre also maintained that the Socio Economic and Caste Census of 2011 was "unusable" for official purposes as the data enumeration was “fraught with mistakes and inaccuracies.”

The decennial census exercise this time was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The Telangana assembly urges the central government for a caste-wise census of the backward class of citizens to be conducted while holding the general census," CM Rao stated in the resolution.

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