The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
KC Tyagi also spoke on special status for Bihar, which has been a demand of the party and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
'As soon as the BJP feels they are going to lose power, they will publish the caste census data of 2011 and conduct the caste census of 2021.'
Bowing to demands by several political parties, government on Thursday decided to carry out a caste census next year.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said his government will undertake a "socio-economic survey of all castes and communities" in the state, following the Centre's reluctance to conduct a caste census nationally.
The conference was seen by many as a show of strength by the Opposition with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav joining in to raise their voice against oppression of backward classes.
The government has no proposal at present to release the report of the caste census carried out in 2011, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday hinted that the much-awaited all-party meeting on a state-specific census of castes could be held later this week.
The caste census would be carried out by the government between June and September next year, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.
A BJP source admitted that a census will inevitably reconfirm the numerical majority of the OBCs. 'That will overturn social equations and consign the upper castes to a twilight zone of marginalisation. The RSS won't accept it.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Shah has firmly stated that providing reservation to Muslims based on religion is unconstitutional, while also confirming that a caste census will proceed alongside the population enumeration.
'In the (election) affidavit, he had declared Rs 1,400 crores as his assets. He has educational institutions, real estate, malls, etc.'
Addressing a huge rally in Maharashtra's Nagpur on the occasion of the Congress' 139th foundation day, he said unemployment in the country has reached its highest point in the last 40 years.
Census exercise with caste enumeration will be carried out with the reference date of October 1, 2026, in snow-bound areas like Ladakh and of March 1, 2027, in the rest of the country, the Home Ministry announced on Wednesday.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav criticised the BJP government's record on women's safety, alleging increased crimes and discrimination.
The demand for a fresh caste census has stirred the political atmosphere in Bihar for some time.
Sonia Gandhi criticises the government's proposed delimitation, claiming it's a politically motivated move to delay the caste census and gain an unfair advantage, rather than genuinely promoting women's reservation.
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said that the central government has not enumerated caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in census since Independence.
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are among the first to roll out the digital exercise.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced a significant increase in Lok Sabha seats for the five southern states following delimitation, countering misinformation and clarifying the timeline for women's reservation implementation.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea filed by the Maharashtra government seeking a direction to the Centre and other authorities to disclose to the state the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 raw caste data of the Other Backward Classes.
The census will be carried out with a reference date of October 1, 2026 in snow-bound areas like Ladakh and March 1, 2027 in the rest of the country, the notification said.
The Group of Ministers on caste census on Thursday failed to reach any decision on the politically sensitive issue and decided to meet again.
The Congress and BJP are engaged in a political spat over the implementation of the Women's Reservation Bill and its proposed link to delimitation, with Rahul Gandhi urging unconditional implementation of the 2023 law and Kiren Rijiju highlighting the constitutional requirement for delimitation based on post-2026 census figures.
The Congress will conduct a caste census in Madhya Pradesh after winning the assembly polls and establish a university in the name of Sant Ravidas, said party president Mallikarjun Kharge, accusing the regime at the Centre of wishing to change the Constitution.
The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mritunjay Kumar Narayan, has reassured the public that individual data collected during the upcoming census will remain confidential and cannot be used for any purpose other than statistical aggregation.
'Some people may not like what I am saying, but shortcomings have to be pointed out. These deficiencies should be rectified within the next three months.' 'This is Gorakhpur, where our CM himself resides. If such shortcomings exist here, then what will happen?'
The Congress party has accused the government of using women's reservation as a pretext to push through delimitation, arguing that the women's quota law should be implemented immediately based on the current Lok Sabha strength.
The 16th Census of India in 2026 will treat stable live-in relationships as marriages, according to the self-enumeration portal's FAQ section. The portal provides guidance on various housing and household-related questions for self-enumeration.
The government has released a set of FAQs to address concerns and clarify the details surrounding the Women's Reservation Bill, which aims to provide 33 per cent quota for women in legislatures.
Just 4.6 per cent of all rural households in the country pay income tax while such households with salaried income are close to 10 per cent, the first socio economic and caste census released in eight decades said.
Population Foundation of India welcomes the digitisation of the Census but emphasises the need for inclusivity, data security, and addressing the under-reporting of women's contributions.
The much-delayed decadal census exercise and the work to update the National Population Register (NPR) are likely to begin early 2025 and the data will be declared by 2026, thus changing future census cycles completely, official sources said.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who made "number 16" jibe at the treasury benches during his speech in Lok Sabha on Friday on three new bills, refused to elaborate on it in his brief interaction with reporters and said "it is a puzzle" and he "won't tell the answer just like that".
'The reason why they rushed through the bill was they wanted to avoid using the 2026 Census because the 2026 Census by their own decision will be a caste census.' 'The BJP knows that a significant share of the OBCs who will get captured in the census, for the first time after the 1931 Census, are against the BJP. Only a segment of the OBCs are in their favour.' 'So they wanted to avoid the OBC reservation among women, which is a demand of a lot of Opposition parties.'
The government on Friday refrained from releasing the caste-based data in its first Socio Economic and Caste Census released in eight decades and maintained that it was concerned with economic data which will help in effective implementation of its programmes.
'What is going on is the under counting of the migration population in urban areas.' 'It has been going on in the last few censuses.'
Tamilaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) has announced its departure from the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, citing the DMK's 'big brother' attitude and unmet demands.
The Indian government has released the list of questions to be asked during the first phase of the Census 2027, focusing on houselisting and housing enumeration. The survey will cover various aspects of housing conditions, household characteristics, and access to basic amenities.
