The Congress party has alleged that the Modi government has made a U-turn on the caste census issue and questioned why a drop-down menu for selecting castes, recommended by the Centre in 2021, is absent from the 2027 Census.
On Tuesday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a U-turn on the caste census issue on April 30, 2025, after previously rejecting it. According to Ramesh, the government has since 'buried' the idea of a caste census without explicitly stating so. He alleged that the absence of a drop-down menu in the 2027 Census, despite it being recommended by the Centre in 2021 and used in previous surveys in Bihar and Telangana, indicates the government's lack of commitment to the census achieving its objectives.
In September 2021, the Union government filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court rejecting a plea for a caste census. However, the affidavit noted that a drop-down menu would have been ideal for consistent data collection. The 2027 Census will ask respondents if they belong to a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe, and include an open-ended question about other communities' castes. This is the first time in independent India that caste will be enumerated across communities.
Ramesh questioned why the 2027 Census does not have this drop-down menu, when the government itself had advocated for it in 2021. He also pointed out that such a menu had been prepared prior to the caste surveys both in Bihar and Telangana.
In recent years, 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 reservations in jobs and education.
Source:
Scroll.in
