Leader of Opposition and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding that the decennial census should be conducted with a comprehensive, integrated socio-economic caste census.
"In the absence of an updated Caste Census, I am afraid a reliable database so essential for meaningful social justice and empowerment programs, particularly for OBCs, is incomplete," Kharge writes in the letter he shared on Twitter on Monday.
"You are aware that for the first time, the UPA Government [Congress and its alliance government ] conducted a Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) during 2011-12, covering some 250 million]households. For several reasons, however, the caste data could not get published even though Congress and other MPs demanded its release after your government came to power in May 2014," Kharge further writes.
Meanwhile, Bihar Deputy state chief Tejashwi Yadav supported Kharge's demand for a caste census, stressing it was important for the country's social-economic development.
In 2021, the BJP-led federal government of India informed the parliament that it would not enumerate the population caste-wise, other than Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).