Caste census: DCM slams Centre, seeks scientific list of OBCs

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Friday urged the Union government to reconsider the open-ended methodology to enumerate Other Backward Classes (OBCs) during the national census, and sought a scientifically standardised national caste census.“I am deeply concerned about the methodology being proposed. For OBCs and other communities, an open-ended system without a properly standardised and verified caste framework can create serious problems. The same community can be recorded under different spellings, sub-caste names, regional identities and local names. The result could be thousands of separate entries representing the same community,” Parameshwara said in a press release.Siddaramaiah reminds Rahul Gandhi about pending caste census report in KarnatakaAs per the current questionnaire, the drop-down in the app is only provided for the SC/ST communities. The Congress has criticised the fact that the option has been left open-ended for OBCs.  Parameshwara, like some progressive intellectuals, questioned the authenticity of the exercise in the hands of the BJP, which has historically opposed the caste census.Wondering how the true population of a community could be revealed if the same community was being counted under multiple names, the deputy chief minister pointed out that a Caste Census has meaning only when it produces “accurate, reliable and scientifically usable” data about the social composition of India.  “Merely adding a question on caste to the Census form does not fulfil that objective. If the methodology itself fragments communities and makes consolidation difficult, then the very purpose of the Caste Census is defeated.” He wondered why the OBCs could not be counted properly when the country maintains standardised lists for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Source: Deccan Herald