Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising concerns over the proposed format for collecting caste data in the census. They warned that an open-ended response system could record the same caste under different names.
Regional variations, sub-castes and linguistic differences could fragment one community into thousands of entries, making the dataset unreliable.
The Congress leaders stressed that accurate caste figures remain essential for framing effective social justice policies. They said flawed population estimates could distort assessments of communities and affect decisions on education, employment, welfare and social justice.
Kharge and Gandhi particularly flagged concerns over the OBC population. They said the term ‘Backward Class’ does not appear in the census, which could prevent authorities from determining the community’s actual numerical strength.
The Congress leaders proposed a ‘drop-down list of castes’ instead.
According to them, officials already use such standardised lists for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. They suggested compiling the list from existing government records, including Socially and Educationally Backward Classes lists and information from the Anthropological Survey of India.
The leaders pointed to caste surveys conducted in Telangana and Bihar as examples of this approach. They attached caste lists from both surveys to their letter for reference.
Kharge and Gandhi said they did not accept the census being conducted under the current format. They urged the government to withdraw the existing questionnaire and prepare a new version after consulting political parties, experts and the public.
The Congress said such consultation would help establish accurate figures for every caste and community. It argued that reliable data would make the caste census more meaningful and strengthen policy decisions benefiting marginalised groups.
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