On Thursday, the Congress proposed that the government could gather caste-wise data on the OBC population in the upcoming Census by simply adding an extra column. They highlighted that each Census since 1951 has included data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, suggesting that a similar approach could be used for OBCs.
The opposition party stated that this measure would provide a more robust foundation for affirmative action programs.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a report in which said the Union government is yet to take a call on conducting the next Census exercise but active discussion is on to expand the data collection to include caste enumeration.
He noted that, as a result, over 12 crore Indians have been deprived of their entitled benefits under the National Food Security Act, 2013, or the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. He also mentioned that there are now reports suggesting that the Union Government may conduct this long-overdue Census within the next few months.
"Every Census since 1951 has been collecting data caste-wise on the population of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Without any difficulty, just by adding an extra column, the Census questionnaire can also collect caste-wise data of the OBC population as well," he said.