Caste data to be part of next population census: Centre’s big announcement

Caste data to be part of next population census: Centre’s big announcement

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, April 30, 2025: Questions on caste - i.e., an enumeration of the various castes and sub-castes, and the number of people in each, across the country - will be part of the next census, which is expected to be held next year, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said during a cabinet briefing Wednesday afternoon.

The government’s big decision - a demand raised frequently and vociferously by the opposition over the past few years - comes months before a critical Assembly election in Bihar.

That is significant because in October 2023 it was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s government - when he was still allied with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress - that pushed through a caste survey.

Bihar became the first state to release such data. The survey indicated that 36 per cent of the state’s population was from Extremely Backward Classes, 27.1 per cent from Backward Classes, 19.7 per cent from Scheduled Castes and 1.7 per cent are from Scheduled Tribes.

The fallout of the report - apart from leading the opposition parties to intensify demands for a nationwide caste survey, a topic that was also a major flashpoint in campaigning for last year’s Lok Sabha election - included the Bihar government ordering special quotas, up to 65 per cent.