http://www.expressb
Home Ministry rules out caste-based census
IANS
First Published : 07 Mar 2010 10:23:22 AM ISTLast Updated : 07 Mar
2010 10:29:28 AM IST
NEW DELHI: The government has decided not to include caste as one of
the parameters in the 2011 census, a demand made by several regional
parties.
"Caste will not be included in the 2011 census," Home Secretary Gopal
K Pillai said.
Parties like PMK, RJD, JD(U) and a few others had demanded in the past
inclusion of caste in the decennial census, especially the survey
focusing on Other Backward Castes to buttress their demand for OBC
reservation.
Besides, West Bengal's Left Front government is the lone state
government to have made a representation to the Central government
asking for a caste-based census.
Groups like OBC Employees' Welfare Association, Tamil Nadu, Most
Backward Class Officers and Employees' Association, Patna, National
Social Justice Forum (Haryana unit) and All India Other Backward
Classes Employees in Indian Ordnance and Ordnance Equipment Factories
Welfare Association, Tiruchirappalli had requested the Home Ministry
for including caste as one of the parameters in 2011.
The office of the Registrar General of India that oversees the census
exercise, comes under the Home Ministry.
Data on demographic and socio-economic parameters like age, sex, SC/ST
status, literacy, religion, mother tongues/ languages known, economic
activity status and migration are among the 15 parameters that would
be collected as part of the 2011 Census.
Home Ministry officials said there are "practical and logistical
difficulties" in including caste in the Census exercise.
"The idea of caste is not uniform across the country.
Besides, how would an enumerator cross-check the claims of someone
belonging to a particular caste," an official said.
The last caste-based Census was held in 1931, but there have been
sporadic calls for one after the implementation of the Mandal
Commission Report.
The PMK even had approached the Supreme Court last year with its
demand. The apex court, however, turned down the plea saying it "could
cause immense strife" and that "this is why it had not been done for
the last 60 years".
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