Caste Census Gets Modi Govt's Nod Ahead Of Bihar Assembly Elections

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Wednesday that the caste census will be incorporated into the national census. Addressing a press conference, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Vaishnaw, said that "Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) has decided today that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming census."

Vaishnaw also criticised the Congress party and stated that successive Congress governments have consistently opposed the caste census and have not conducted one since 1947. He also emphasised that a proper caste census must be included in the main national census, not conducted as a separate exercise. Commenting on the debate around the caste census, the senior BJP leader said that Congress and its INDI alliance partners have used the caste census only as a political tool. 

“Congress governments always opposed caste census and added that caste was not included in all the census operations conducted since independence,” he said.

“In 2010, late Dr Manmohan Singh had assured the Lok Sabha that the matter of caste census should be considered in the Cabinet. A group was formed to consider this subject and several parties had recommended the same. Despite this, the Congress government conducted a caste survey not a caste census. Well understood that Congress and its India alliance partners have used caste census only as a political tool,” the BJP leader further added tracking back the tenure of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Meanwhile, responding to the big development, Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh thanked Rahul Gandhi and said that the public will benefit from it. Singh said that all the credit goes to Rahul, and the government had to take this decision due to the Congress. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul, has been consistently putting pressure on the central government to conduct the caste census. The former Congress president, Gandhi, was vocal about the caste census in all his rallies for the past several months.

The decision by the BJP-led NDA government at the centre is significant due to the upcoming Bihar assembly polls, which is scheduled to be held by this year end. Every census from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes. However, until 1931, every census had data on caste.

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