&w=3840&q=100)
Govt notifies Census 2027, Cong questions 'silence' on caste enumeration
The Centre on Monday notified conducting the next Census in 2027, a massive exercise which the government had said will include caste enumeration, even as political parties of all hues indicated that the exercise and its findings would lead to intense political contestation.
The last census was held in 2011.
The census will be carried out with a reference date of October 1, 2026 in the snow-bound areas like Ladakh and March 1, 2027 in the rest of the country, the notification said.
The exercise is estimated to cost the exchequer over Rs 13,000 crore, and will be conducted by nearly 3.4 million enumerators and supervisors and 130,000 census functionaries armed with digital devices.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the preparation for the Census with Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, and other senior officials here on Sunday.
According to Article 246 of the Constitution, the Census is a subject listed at 69 in the Union List in the Seventh Schedule. In the upcoming Census, caste enumeration will also be done, the first such exercise since Independence.
The training process for enumerators is likely to start in October 2025. Citizens will answer around three dozen questions ranging from whether they use a telephone, internet connection and the likes; their vehicles, the cereals they consume, water source, house type, whether the head of the household is a woman, an SC or ST.
Meanwhile, terming the notification on the 16th Census as a 'damp squib', Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said it was 'silent on the inclusion of caste' in the exercise and asked whether this is another 'U-turn' by the government.
He also suggested that the Centre must adopt the Telangana model for not just caste enumeration but also in bringing out detailed data on socio-economic parameters caste-wise.
Later in the day, Ramesh said that if one looks at history it would be very uncomfortable for the Sangh Parivar, including the BJP, which withdrew support to the VP Singh government on the Mandal Commission issue in 1990, and started the 'Kamandal agitation'.
Meanwhile in Patna, the capital of poll-bound Bihar, Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan participated in the centenary celebrations of martyr Buddhu Nonia.
Chouhan said that the government at the Centre would, once the Census data is published, consider the Nonia community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status if it comes out that 95 per cent of the community is extremely poor.
The Nonia community is present in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and according to Bihar's caste survey of 2022, comprises 1.9 per cent of the state's population.
Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Union minister Bhupendra Yadav accused the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government of indulging in 'politics of appeasement' by issuing a fresh list of OBC communities that has included a large number of Muslim castes.
He criticised the Congress for always betraying the OBCs pointing to the Karnataka government's decision to junk an earlier caste count and go for a fresh enumeration.
On the Congress asking the Centre to adopt the 'Telangana model' for not just caste enumeration but also in bringing out detailed data on socio-economic parameters during the nationwide census, Yadav asked why the Congress did not follow the same practice in Karnataka.
Congress' inner contradictions have been exposed as the party has no real commitment to social justice and resorts to such political gimmicks for electoral purposes, he said.
In West Bengal, Chief Minister Banerjee asserted in the state assembly that her government was working to safeguard the interests of SCs, STs, backward castes, and Muslims, in line with the Supreme Court and High Court directives on social welfare.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also clarified that his government's upcoming socio-educational and caste survey is fundamentally different from the Centre's caste census.
'The Centre is only doing a caste census, while we are undertaking a comprehensive socio-educational and caste survey. The distinction is important,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
26 minutes ago
- Hans India
From ‘Kamandal' to Mandal, politics takes a new direction
Caste politics is a grim and ever-present reality in India. Over the years, it has become a desensitised, easy to calculate arithmetic for all political parties. No outfit that survives only on casteist politics attempts to justify its existence anymore, as it has become part of mainstream political tactics. However, the muddled and manipulative methods to inflate the influence of each of the leading caste groups for brazen political mileage and allied benefits would have to undergo a reality check soon. Hopefully. The Centre has bitten the bullet and is to take up a caste census survey alongside the Census enumeration exercise, in two phases. While this activity is still nearly two years away from gaining momentum, in the neighbourhood, the Congress government in Karnataka has retracted its earlier 2015-16 caste census report and announced a fresh one. This was because the Siddaramaiah government had to acknowledge the vociferous opposition by two of the leading castes – Vokkaligas and Lingayats – who accused the report of underrepresenting their numbers while inflating others, including the minority population, which avowedly was more than one of the castes. Even as the new caste census is waiting to take-off, the BJP, as expected, has not stopped its trenchant criticism in this regard. They not only accuse the government of having been dishonest with the earlier report but allege that the new caste survey announcement is to divert attention from the monumental stampede tragedy which rocked the state and the cricket-loving country in the first week of June. The official reason is still that the new socio-economic and educational survey would be more inclusive as the earlier one was found deficient in certain aspects. This opinion too has not gone uncontested as some OBC castes seem to be content with the findings of the earlier survey and have agreed to its implementation. With the High Command in Delhi setting a deadline of less than three months to complete the re-enumeration exercise as of present, the Karnataka government may take it up expeditiously. Moreover, with the bragging rights still with the GOP for initiating this contentious exercise and coming up with a report, however contentious, it would want to hold on to its head start in this regard. Meanwhile, opposition to the findings of the earlier report was not just from various caste groups in the State, but also from ministers, representing different castes, who feared that the ground would slip from beneath their feet if they allowed implementation of the survey report. Interestingly, Yathindra, Congress MLC and son of the incumbent Chief Minister, said something similar that highlights the collective backing for the earlier survey report among the non-Vokkaliga, Lingayat formations. He even explained in detail how the backward classes, including the minorities, accounted for 75 per cent of the population, while decrying the fact they were not adequately represented in society. In the 1990s, the BJP had used 'Kamandal', a reference to the Hindu sentiment to blunt the rise of Mandal Commission fallout to come to power in various states, before optimally exploiting it to seize control at the Centre in 2014. Is history about to repeat itself?
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
PDP chief urges MEA to ensure safety of students in Iran
Former J&K chief minister (CM) Mehbooba Mufti has sought Centre's intervention for safeguarding Kashmiri students studying in Iran, and J&K Students Association has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the same. Thousands of students from J&K are waiting for evacuation from different cities of Iran, with escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. Former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said that central government should ensure safety of students. 'Families of the stranded students in Iran are growing increasingly anxious with each passing day. I earnestly urge the ministry of external affairs to intervene and take immediate steps to ensure the safe return of their loved ones,' Mehbooba Mufti wrote on X. Prominent Shia leader and general secretary of Peoples Conference Imran Reza Ansari said that government of India is working on evacuation of Indian nationals and J&K students. 'Spoke to HE Ambassador of Republic of India in Iran Rudra Gaurav Shresth. He is personally monitoring the situation and is ensuring the safety of the Indian nationals and students from Jammu and Kashmir They are working on evacuation of the students in Tehran to a safer location for the time being. We have complete faith and trust in all the officials at the mission in Tehran,' he wrote on X. Meanwhile J&K Students Association in a letter to the PM has requested immediate intervention and evacuation of the Kashmiri students. The letter said that the dire situation is faced by hundreds of Kashmiri students currently studying in Iran, following the unprecedented escalation in hostilities between Iran and Israel. 'The recent Israeli preemptive airstrikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, followed by a barrage of retaliatory drone and missile attacks by Iran, have brought the region to the brink of a full-scale conflict. This volatile security environment has left thousands of Indian students, majority of them from Kashmir valley, extremely vulnerable and exposed to immediate danger. These students had travelled to Iran to pursue professional education, particularly MBBS, due to the country's economically viable academic infrastructure. Now, they find themselves in the middle of an active military zone, fearful for their lives,' reads the letter. The letter said that numerous students have contacted the Indian Embassy in Tehran seeking support, relocation, or evacuation. 'However, they have not received any reassuring response or concrete information about what the next steps will be. They remain in a state of confusion and despair, with no clarity about evacuation plans, safety protocols, or emergency assistance. We earnestly urge you to direct the external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar to take urgent steps to relocate the students to safer areas within Iran and initiate immediate evacuation efforts. This will provide much-needed relief and assurance to the distressed families back home.'
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Malvan jinx? Ground near Shivaji statue pedestal sinks
Navi Mumbai: Just over a month after the new statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji was inaugurated by CM Devendra Fadnavis at the Rajkot fort in Malvan, Sindhudurg, a portion of the ground around the pedestal was found to have subsided on Saturday, reports Umesh K Parida. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The new 60ft statue was built after the earlier statue collapsed in Aug last year, so this is the second time there has been a problem at the site. As Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal claimed the pedestal had developed a big hole and Shiv Sena (UBT) alleged corruption, Sindhudurg collector Anil Patil was quoted as saying by PTI the ground around the pedestal had sunk due to rain but the issue had been rectified. PWD has already carried out repairs. After reports of the ground near the pedestal of the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue at Rajkot fort in Malvan having subsided, the public works department's Sawantwadi division started repair work. Konkan divisional chief engineer Sharad Rajbhoj, who inspected the site on Monday, said the issue was not serious and the statue was intact. The pedestal area had earlier been reclaimed through filling to facilitate work on the new statue after an earlier one collapsed in 2024. Dumping of earth there was followed by concretization work, claimed locals. PWD experts attributed the sinking to the natural phenomenon of soil settlement caused after the first rain. As workers of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress lodged a protest during the visit of the Konkan divisional chief engineer and demanded an inquiry, he said a committee will inquire into the matter and if required, action will be taken against the contractor. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The identity of the contractor is not known. The 60 ft tall (83 ft including the pedestal) statue was designed and installed by veteran sculptor Ram Sutar. The PWD has said that the contracting firm, whose identity is not known, will carry out maintenance of the statue for ten years. The statue, installed at an administrative cost of Rs 31.7 crore, can withstand wind speed of around 200 km per hour. Two IIT-Bombay professors of the structural engineering and metallurgy departments had overseen the structural framework and stability aspects. Windtech, a company based in Sydney, has given the wind tunnel clearance. The previously-installed 28 ft tall statue inaugurated by PM Modi in Dec 2023 collapsed on Aug 26, 2024 due to gusty winds, sparking a political controversy. CM Fadnavis inaugurated the new statue on May 11 this year after performing a puja. State Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal alleged on Monday, "It is a sign of poor construction if the pedestal has developed a big hole in one month. The statue inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi fell in just eight months due to huge corruption in carrying out the work."
