Bibhudatta Pradhan / New Delhi
The Centre’s decision to conduct the caste census without caste name in the Census questionnaire will be rolled out from February 27 to March 27,
The month-long exercise will broadly follow the household Census format, but will have 40 questions, compared with 29 questions asked during the 2011 Census.
The exercise, which is expected to provide an updated socio-economic profile of the population, has already triggered a political debate over the methodology adopted by the Centre for collecting, collating and publishing caste data.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has questioned the proposed format of the caste enumeration in a post on X, demanding that the Centre conduct the exercise along the lines of the caste surveys undertaken by Telangana and Bihar.
However, the absence of caste name in the Census questionnaire has emerged as a key issue, with questions being raised over whether the proposed format can generate the comprehensive caste-wise database demanded by political parties and various social groups.
The caste enumeration assumes significance as the demand for an updated caste database has gathered momentum over the past few years. The last major caste data exercise was undertaken in 2011 under the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), but the caste data was not released in the comprehensive form sought by several political parties.