Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs has decided today (30th April 2025) to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming Census. Announcing the decision, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, a member of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, emphasised that this move is not sudden but the result of extensive deliberation. He recalled that on 18th September 2024, Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah had indicated that such a decision would be made public at the time of the Census announcement.
Reddy criticised the Congress Party and its INDI alliance partners, stating that they have historically used the issue of caste census as a political tool, not with the genuine aim of achieving social justice or improving administration, but to divide society and create friction. He pointed to the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011, conducted by the Congress-led government, as a failed exercise marked by poor planning and execution, which resulted in the identification of 46 lakh castes and contained 8.19 crore errors.
While the decadal Censuses between 1881 and 1931 enumerated all castes, after independence the Congress led government ordered that the Census of 1951 should not enumerate caste. Congress governments since then have always opposed the caste census.
In 2010, then Prime Minister Late Dr Manmohan Singh ji had assured the Lok Sabha that the matter of caste census would be considered in the Cabinet and a Group of Ministers was formed to consider this subject. Most of the political parties had recommended caste census and the BJP wholeheartedly supported the unanimous resolution passed in Parliament.
Despite this, the Congress government decided to conduct only a survey instead of a caste census. That survey known as Socio Economic Caste Census – 2011 (SECC-2011) was such a terrible failure due to poor planning and inept execution that it showed 46 lakh castes and contained 8.19 crore mistakes. After spending Rs. 4,893.60 crores, the results were never released. This was because the then Union Minister of Home Affairs Shri P Chidamabram opposed the inclusion of caste in the census and hence the SECC was not conducted under the Census Act, 1948 as the Act was not amended to include caste as a parameter. Since then the Congress Party and its INDI alliance partners have used Caste Census as a political tool. Their intention was not done with an aim of social justice or better administration but as a tool to divide society and cause friction.
As per article 246 of the Constitution of India, the subject Census is listed at 69 in the Union list in Seventh Schedule. According to the Constitution of India, conducting the decadal Census is a Union subject. Some states have conducted surveys to enumerate castes as per the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008. While some states have done this well, others have conducted such surveys purely from a political angle in a non-transparent way creating doubts in society. These surveys do not have the same rigour and authority as that of a census.
Considering all these facts, and to ensure that our social fabric is not disturbed by politics, caste enumeration should be transparently included in the Census instead of surveys. This will strengthen the social and economic structure of our society while the nation continues to progress.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, has decided today (30th April, 2025) that caste enumeration should be included in the forthcoming Census. This is not a sudden decision but one that has gone through much deliberation. On September 18th 2024, Union Minister of Home Affairs Shri Amit Shah had stated that this decision will be made public at the time of announcement of the census. This demonstrates that our government is committed to the values and interests of our society and country, like in the past when our government had introduced 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections of the society without causing stress in any section of the society.
