In an unexpected move, the Centre on Wednesday said that the caste census will be part of the next national census exercise.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Railways Minister, said that the decision was taken at the cabinet committee on Political Affairs meeting.
“Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided to include caste enumeration in forthcoming census exercise,” the Union Minister said in a media briefing.
For long the Congress, INDIA bloc and some of the regional parties have been demanding that the Centre announce a caste census. Recently, Congress-ruled Karnataka went ahead with a caste survey of its own.
Albeit, it faced objections from the Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities of Karnataka. These communities argue that the ‘Social and Educational Survey Report,’ after being commissioned ten years ago, does not adequately represent their interests and needs a thorough review.
The minister hit out at the Congress, saying the party always opposed the caste census. He also attacked other INDIA bloc parties, accusing them of using the caste-based population count only to gain political mileage.
The minister held that the Congress governments have always opposed the caste census. In 2010, the late Dr Manmohan Singh said that the matter of caste census should be considered in the Cabinet, he said, adding that a group of ministers was formed to consider this subject. Most of the political parties have recommended a caste census. Despite this, the Congress government decided to conduct a survey of caste or a caste census, Vaishnaw said.
He alleged that the Congress and its INDI alliance partners have used the caste census only as a political tool. Some states have conducted surveys to enumerate castes. While some states have done this well, some others conducted such surveys only from a political angle in a non-transparent way, he added.
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