Cabinet calls for caste count in next census
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India's next census will include caste enumeration , marking a major political shift by the NDA government . The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and comes ahead of the Bihar assembly polls later in the year. The committee includes key NDA coalition allies, including Jitan Ram Manjhi, former chief minister of Bihar, and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party.Reading a statement on the decision, Union minister Ashwani Vaishnaw hit out at the opposition, alleging that Congress governments in the past had opposed a caste census while using it as a political tool. The exercise will be conducted in a transparent manner to ensure the social fabric is not disturbed, he said.In October last year, ET reported the Centre aimed to begin conducting the much-delayed decadal census in 2025.People aware of developments said work on the census has been going on for some time and that a draft cabinet note was prepared last year.Earlier this year, the home secretary held a meeting with top officials to finalise the format of the questionnaire for the census. Suggestions were sought from almost all ministries on this, while caste-related suggestions were sought from the social justice ministry.Until now, the census has captured such data under the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe (SC/ST) categories. The next one will likely capture data of other backward castes (OBCs) as well. The Registrar General of India will carry out the census and seek a variety of information.This is expected to include the number of persons residing in a household, if the head of the household is a woman and whether members have phones and access to an internet connection.It will also ask if the household members own mobile phones and what kind, as well as any kind of vehicle. There could also be questions on education qualifications, whether the person lives in a brick and mortar dwelling or not (pucca or kaccha home) or is a recipient of government benefits.The census is also linked to the key issues of delimitation and the Women's Reservation Act On the former, the southern states, led by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, argue that redrawing parliamentary representation based on numbers through delimitation would penalise those that have done well on population control. He has called for a 30-year freeze at the current level. The latter sets aside a third of the seats in the Parliament for women.While the census comes under the purview of the Centre, Vaishnaw said some states had conducted caste enumeration in surveys "non-transparently," creating doubts in the mind of the people."Considering all these facts and to ensure the social fabric is not disturbed by politics, caste enumeration should be transparently included in the census, instead of surveys," he said, adding that this will strengthen the social and economic structure of the society.The opposition INDIA bloc had made the caste census a major poll plank in recent elections, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pledging that this would provide data to make benefits more equitable.States that have conducted such counts include Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka, the last of which hasn't made the results public.The last nationwide census was completed in 2011 and the next was to have commenced in April 2020 but got delayed due to the pandemic. Though home minister Amit Shah said late last year that the census would be conducted "very soon," there is no clarity as yet on when exactly the exercise will be carried out. "A message of strong commitment towards social equality and rights of every section has been given by deciding to include caste census in the upcoming census," Shah wrote on X in Hindi. "This decision will empower all economically and socially backward classes, promote inclusion, and pave new paths for the progress of the deprived."Vaishnaw said that in 2010, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured the Lok Sabha that a caste census would be considered by the Cabinet. A group of ministers was formed after most political parties had recommended such a census. "The Congress government decided to conduct only a survey, instead of a caste census. That survey is known as SECC," said Vaishnaw. "It is well understood that the Congress and its INDI alliance partners have used caste census only as a political tool."The first caste enumeration in independent India was conducted in 2011 and was known as the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011.Census exercises during British rule between 1881 and 1931 included caste enumeration. After Independence, the government decided in 1951 not to include caste in the census, except for SC/STs.
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Preah Vihear was awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice in 1962, but tension escalated in 2008 after Cambodia attempted to list it as a UNESCO World Heritage site. That led to skirmishes over several years and at least a dozen deaths. India on Saturday (July 26) advised its citizens in Cambodia to avoid travelling to border areas as the clash between Thailand and Cambodia over a disputed border entered its third day. Send your feedback and ideas to Ashiya Parveen is working as Commissioning Editor for the UPSC Section at The Indian Express. She also writes a weekly round up of global news, The World This Week. Ashiya has more than 10 years of experience in editing and writing spanning media and academics, and has both academic and journalistic publications to her credit. She has previously worked with The Pioneer and Press Trust of India (PTI). She also holds a PhD in international studies from Centre for West Asian Studies, JNU. ... Read More
Indian Express
14 minutes ago
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'I shifted my daughter from a private school to a government school since I cannot afford it anymore,' Kuldeep said, sobbing over a phone call, while boarding a bus from Delhi to Sangrur in Punjab. She was among the 50 families from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Karnataka who protested at Jantar Mantar Thursday, led by the Indian Pravasi Movement. They urged the government to immediately implement the 2015 India-Qatar agreement on the transfer of sentenced people to repatriate Indian prisoners and an audit of the Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF). Approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2014, the agreement allows 'Indian prisoners imprisoned in Qatar or vice-versa to be near their families, for serving the remaining part of their sentence and shall facilitate their social rehabilitation'. Similar agreements have been signed with countries such as the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Bulgaria, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, France, Bangladesh, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, and Sri Lanka. The ICBF, under the auspices of the Embassy of India in Doha, Qatar, has been established to provide financial, medical, and other forms of assistance to distressed and underprivileged Indians. However, Kuldeep's husband, Sandeep Singh, 40, arrested on charges of possession of drugs in his car, has been in jail for two and a half years, serving 10 years of imprisonment. His wife and a fourteen-year-old daughter live alone. 'He shifted to Doha in 2007 and has been a taxi driver since then. Recently, he bought his private car. One day, a customer left a bag, which had drugs. Later, the police arrested my husband. Now he is lodged in the central jail, and earns money by washing the clothes of the officers, and then calls us with that money.' Kuldeep is angry with the government's lack of support. 'I have given multiple written complaints now, even to the PM office, the Indian and Qatar embassies. My husband calls me every Friday. On the last call, he said that to date, the lawyer assigned to him by the Qatar government has never come to meet him or present his case. The judge just gave the verdict.' However, she had learned about the protest through her husband a week earlier. 'I have come to Delhi multiple times to file complaints, have exhausted all my resources, and I don't have a job either. He told me over the phone that a group from Kerala is protesting in Delhi, as he had learned from other inmates. I have not given up hope, wherever they say, I will go,' she said. For Parveen Kaur, from Amritsar, her biggest challenge is to make her children understand their father's whereabouts. 'They cry when he calls, asking when you will come. My seven-year-old daughter has lost interest in studies,' she said while travelling along with Kuldeep. Her husband, Gurjeet Singh, also a taxi driver in Qatar, was arrested in a drug case on October 12, 2022. 'I had called him in the daytime, and he said he would call me back. But when he never did, I rang him multiple times at night, then he said he was in the police station,' she said. Now, raising her two children alone, she said that her parents are assisting her, but they are also taking a step back due to the expenses. 'I had sold my jewellery and collected Rs 4.5 lakh and did a direct bank transfer to the Qatar lawyer. His (lawyer's) wife, an Indian, translated to me what the lawyer was saying. They said my husband would be deported soon. But after that, they stopped picking up my calls,' she said, her voice shaking, adding that she, too, received no help from the Indian embassy and the Indian government. Ashraf Ponnain, from Malappuram district in Kerala, was once a prisoner in Qatar, but is now back in India. However, during his last visit, he was unaware that his son, Naushad, had also been implicated in a cheque fraud case. 'I found out that my son was in jail after I got out. They accused him falsel; the sponsor had planted everything. The sponsor made him sign a blank cheque of 1 lakh 40 thousand Riyal. I have lost all the resources now,' he said, adding that he had already paid large amounts to get himself out by selling his shops back in Kerala, and now he has no money left to help his son. R J Sajith, president of the Indian Pravasi Movement, said the prisoners, all coming from poor households, have already borrowed money to reach the foreign country. 'Why is there no implementation of the agreement? Where are the funds from the ICBF going? These people are voiceless, but the embassy and the government have offered no help till now,' he alleged.
