Stalin urges Centre to revise caste data format for 2027 census
text_fields
Chennai: DMK President and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday urged the Union government to revise the proposed method for collecting caste data during Census 2027, warning that an open-ended system could lead to unreliable data and undermine the purpose of the exercise.
Stalin objected to the proposal to allow enumerators to manually enter caste names without selecting them from a standardised list. He argued that variations in spelling, local terminology and community classifications could create inconsistencies on a massive scale.
He urged the Centre to consult state governments and obtain their official lists of Backward Classes (BCs) and Most Backward Classes (MBCs), which, he said, should be incorporated into the census software through a predetermined selection system to ensure uniformity and accuracy across the country.
The DMK leader also called on the Tamil Nadu government to adopt a special resolution during the ongoing Assembly session. Such a resolution, he said, would reflect the concerns of the people of Tamil Nadu and put greater pressure on the Centre to introduce an error-free enumeration process.
Stalin rejected the Union government's explanation that the Other Backward Classes (OBC) list comprises classes rather than individual castes. He maintained that citizens should be able to select their community from an established list rather than rely on unrestricted entries recorded by enumerators.
According to Stalin, an open-ended format could lead to numerous duplicate or incorrect classifications. He referred to past claims that unstructured data collection had falsely indicated the existence of as many as 46 lakh separate castes across India.
He said the primary purpose of collecting caste data is to establish the population strength of OBC communities and assess their social, economic and educational status, similar to the information collected for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
Accurate figures, he said, would help the Union and state governments formulate reservation policies, welfare programmes and development initiatives based on measurable deprivation and representation.
Stalin warned that proceeding with what he described as a defective methodology could waste nearly Rs 12,000 crore in public money, besides the extensive labour of lakhs of government employees involved in the nationwide exercise.
He said immediate corrections were necessary to protect the social justice entitlements of millions belonging to backward and most backward communities. A transparent and standardised system, he added, was essential to produce credible caste data and ensure that the 2027 Census serves its intended policy purpose.
With IANS inputs