Should caste be added to the census? The government is considering it

Preparations for the country’s census have already begun. In this context, there are reports that the central government is considering including a caste column in the census. However, no decision has been taken in this regard yet.

Sources say the Central Government is considering including caste in the census. The census exercise will start soon and an announcement will be made soon. Let us tell you that the census exercise was supposed to start in 2020 but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many opposition parties, including the Congress, have long been demanding a caste census. The Congress has suggested that the government can simply add a column in the next census to collect caste data for the OBC population. The Congress had said that a similar process has been going on since 1951 to get data for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The opposition parties had said that this move by the government can further strengthen the foundation of affirmative action (providing assistance to members of disadvantaged groups).

Let us tell you that the Congress has been demanding a caste census for a long time. Now the Congress believes that along with the population census, the government should also clear the way for a caste census. This will pave the way for justice to SCs, STs and OBCs.

Is there a need for a caste census?

The argument in favour of a caste census is that data on SC and ST castes has been published since 1951, but not on OBC and other castes. Hence, it is difficult to estimate the exact population of OBCs.

– In 1990, the then Central Vice-President Singh government implemented the recommendations of the Second Backward Class Commission. It was called the Mandal Commission. It was estimated that the OBC population in the country was 52%.

However, the Mandal Commission’s estimate of OBC population was based only on the census of 1931. 27% reservation was provided to OBCs only on the recommendation of the Mandal Commission.

Experts say the reservations given to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are based on their population. But there is no basis for reservations for OBCs.

What is the current population of the country?

India conducted its first census in 1881. At that time, India’s population was 253.8 million. Since then, the census has been conducted every 10 years. The last census was conducted in 2011. According to the 2011 census, India’s population exceeded 1.21 billion. Between 2001 and 2011, India’s population grew by about 18%. Of these, 966.3 million are Hindus and 17.22 billion are Muslims.

Of the total population of India, 79.8% are Hindus and 14.2% are Muslims. Next, Christians are 2.78 billion (2.3%) and Sikhs are 2.08 billion (1.7%). The rest of the population who believe in Buddhism and Jainism are less than 1%. The current population of India is estimated to be 1.41 billion.