Caste census will help in targeting benefits: Tejashwi

Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Monday said the caste-based census will help in preparing welfare schemes for people from different sections of society.

"Twice resolutions have been passed in Bihar Assembly for caste census in the state. With such a census we can get data that can help in preparing relevant benefit schemes for people from different sections of society," Yadav told media persons here.

Meanwhile, the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the delegation of 10 parties led by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to discuss a caste-based census is over in Delhi.

Besides Bihar chief minister, other members of the delegation include RJD's Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary, who is also the minister for education and parliamentary affairs, former chief minister and president of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) Jitan Ram Manjhi, Congress legislature party leader Ajeet Sharma and BJP leader and Bihar minister Janak Ram, CPI-ML legislature party leader Mahboob Alam, Akhtarul Imam of AIMIM, Mukesh Sahni of VIP, Suryakant Paswan of CPI and Ajay Kumar of CPI(M).

Earlier, Tejashwi Yadav also had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the demand for a caste-based census.

However, the Central government has so far refused to accede to the demand.

On July 20, in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai had said: "The Government of India has decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste-wise populations other than SCs and STs in the census."

On March 10, 2021, the Union ministry of home affairs had clarified on caste-related details received from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011 to the ministry of social justice and empowerment (MoSJE). In reply, the Union home ministry said that raw caste data has been provided to the MoSJE for the classification and categorisation of the data.

"The Office of the Registrar General, India had provided logistics and technical support in conducting the SECC-2011. The raw caste data has been provided to the MoSJE for the classification and categorisation of the data. As informed by MoSJE, there is no proposal to release the caste data at this stage," the Home Ministry had said.