NEW DELHI: Terming the methodology for caste count adopted in Census 2027 “misleading” as it will not give a headcount of OBCs, leaders of opposition in Parliament Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have written to PM Narendra Modi demanding the Census questionnaire on caste notified recently be abandoned and a new one be drafted. They underlined that the word “OBC” has not even been used in Census.In the backdrop of the controversy triggered by the questionnaire, Kharge and Rahul told PM “your govt” has adopted an “open-ended question” to collect information about caste and that enumerators will have to take for answer whatever a person replies to the caste question.They argued that a caste is known by different names and sub-castes depending on the region, which would result in one caste being recorded by thousands of names. “This would result in lakhs of castes being registered in the country and the entire data recorded in the caste census would become useless,” the letter said.“We don’t approve of the caste census being done through this methodology. Govt should cancel the present questionnaire and prepare a fresh one through consultations with political parties, experts and public, so that a correct headcount of every caste and community is collected, and the caste census is precise, relevant and beneficial,” it said.Kharge and Rahul said a readymade solution to the problem is that a “drop down menu” comprising list of castes be added to the questionnaire. “This very methodology is used for counting SCs and STs (in Census)…this methodology was adopted in the caste surveys of Bihar and Telangana. We are enclosing the caste lists of the two surveys for understanding,” they said.
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Further, they said such a list of castes for Census can easily be compiled on the basis of existing govt lists like Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and Anthropological Survey of India.Releasing the letter, AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh and OBC department chairperson Anil Jaihind said govt had in an affidavit to Supreme Court in Sept 2021 submitted that a “drop down menu” with list of castes will have to be used if a caste census was to be done.Ramesh said census enumerators can carry the said list of OBCs and record precise answers to the question on caste. He accused govt of “sabotaging” caste census.
