After announcing that the Backward Classes Caste Census would be taken up in Telangana, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy seems to be quite serious about introducing the Caste Census Bill in the next Assembly sessions.
This will be the first time that the BC caste census will be taken up in Telangana and the government is seriously working on it to introduce the Bill in the Budget Sessions likely to be conducted in February, highly placed sources confirmed to The Hindu.
Caste Census was promised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his election meetings in Telangana last November and the Chief Minister is committed to implementing the same. Mr. Gandhi has been quite clear about the Caste Census to ensure social justice and bring those sections into the mainstream that have been deprived of political and economic opportunities.
The government is planning to introduce the BC Caste Census Bill in the budget session of the Assembly. Sources said that the responsibility of drafting the Caste Census Bill has been entrusted to Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar. The Chief Minister also instructed the officials to study the modalities adopted in Bihar where the caste census has been taken up.
“Officials have been directed to adopt the best procedures for census after studying the methods which were being followed to conduct the caste census in other States including Bihar,” sources in the Chief Minister’s Office revealed.
However, a clear picture on the modalities to be adopted would be revealed once the officials submit their report. There have been demands from the Most Backward Castes (MBCs) that they have been denied their share in the State and country’s development due to their small numbers. The Bihar government conducted a two-phase caste census survey four months ago and it has already announced the survey outcome stating that 63% of the population in the State comprised Backward Classes (BCs). The government in Karnataka also conducted a caste census in the name of Socio, Economic and Education Survey last year. Similar exercise is on in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Congress party at the national level has already announced its official policy concerning the Caste Census and made it a national agenda. Mr. Rahul Gandhi has been quite vocal about this; this part dominates his speeches in every meetings.
The last Caste Census was conducted by the then British government in 1931 as part of the population census in India. The successive governments in Independent India have been using the same statistics and data for formulating their economic and developmental policies. No caste census was carried out after India attained freedom.
Household survey
The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) government headed by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao conducted a Household Survey in 2014 as soon as Telangana was formed and it is alleged that the caste details were clandestinely collected by the then government and the data was never revealed.
Opposition parties have been alleging that KCR had used the data to devise schemes to gain political advantage over other parties. The then Opposition including the Congress and BJP had demanded that the data be made public in the interests of the State.
