OBC conference demands mandatory caste codes in Census, warns of movement
OBC leaders demand mandatory caste enumeration with unique codes in the Census, warning of a nationwide movement if ignored.
A national conference of Other Backward Classes (OBC) groups on Sunday demanded that the Central government make caste enumeration mandatory in the upcoming Census and assign a unique code to every caste. The leaders warned that conducting the exercise without these measures would be a waste of public money and should be halted until a nationwide consensus is reached.
The conference was chaired by T. Chiranjeevulu, former IAS officer and chairman of the Backwards Classes Intellectual Forum, and G. Kiran Kumar, president of the All India OBC Students Association. Speakers argued that without a unique code for each caste, the Census cannot be scientifically sound. They demanded separate columns for OBCs and the General Category, similar to those provided for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson and professor Yogendra Yadav warned that the approximately ₹12,800 crore allocated by the Centre for the Census would be wasted if the exercise was conducted merely as a formality without proper scientific planning. The speakers also cautioned the government that a nationwide movement could follow if their demand was ignored.
The Congress and other Opposition parties have also objected to the proposed open-ended format for recording caste details, arguing that the same caste may be known by different names, sub-castes, and linguistic variants in different parts of the country.