Why no mention of ‘caste census’ in MHA notification on Census 2027, asks Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday said that it has ‘strong doubts about the intention of the Government of India to carry out the caste census in the country.’

The party asked why there was no official mention of the caste census made in yesterday’s gazette notification announcing the delayed census. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday issued a gazette notification stating that the population census will be conducted in two phases.

The notification stated that the census will be carried out in the areas of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand starting from October 2026, while the rest of the country will be covered from March 2027.

‘Why did it take six years?’

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot apprehended that the caste census would meet the same fate as that of the Women Reservation Bill, which the government postponed even after it was passed in the Parliament.

He asked if the preparation for the census was in its last stages in 2020, and the government had no trouble in holding elections or conducting surveys in 2021 and beyond, why would it now take six full years to count the population?

‘Engineer a new delimitation’

“Is the 2027 census being timed to engineer a new delimitation that benefits BJP-ruled states?” he asked while doubting the government’s intentions in this regard.

The Congress general secretary said that while India missed its scheduled census date of 2021, with the enumeration now having been pushed to 2027, there is no mention of a caste census in the notification.

Telangana Caste Census

Quoting the example of Telangana State, he said, when the Congress government there decided to conduct a caste census, it issued a notification that explicitly mentioned the word ‘caste’. The government there made it clear that it would carry out a household survey to assess social, educational, economic, employment, political and caste-related parameters.

Pilot observed, given the BJP government’s track record of backtracking, use of distraction tactics in times of its failures and its affinity to hypocrisy, we won’t be surprised if it quietly shelves the caste census once again.

‘Financial allocation for census is very less’

Besides the absence of any mention of the caste census in the gazette notification, Pilot also drew attention to the paltry amount allocated for the census. He said, while the census would cost about Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 crore, the government had allocated a meagre Rs 570 crore for the purpose, which clearly shows its intentions.

Suggesting that the Central government should adopt the Telangana model, Sachin Pilot said it was not conceived and planned by the bureaucrats, but was formulated after broad-based consultation and participation of different sections of the society.