Cabinet approves caste enumeration in next census

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has approved the enumeration of caste in the next Census, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday. The Union government did not announce when the exercise would take place.

The Union minister alleged that the Opposition Congress and its allies had used their demand for a caste census “only as a political tool”.

“Congress governments always opposed caste census,” Vaishnaw said at a press conference. “Caste was not included in all the census operations conducted since Independence.”

The Socio Economic and Caste Census conducted by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in 2011 to enumerate caste was a survey and not a Census, Vaishnaw said.

Data relating to castes in the Socio Economic and Caste Census was not made public.

The Opposition has been demanding a nationwide caste census. The proponents of such an exercise argue that it will help identify the true population of the country’s Other Backward Classes and other castes, in turn paving the way for policies such as expanded quotas.

Vaishnaw added that the Census came under the purview of the Union government and the exercises some states had conducted to enumerate castes were surveys.

“Some states have done this well, while some others have conducted such surveys purely from a political angle in a non-transparent way,” said the Union minister. “Such...

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