Lalu Yadav Demands Caste-Based Census, Says Will "Uplift" Backward Classes

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday raised the demand for caste-based census and said it is needed for qualitative upliftment in the lives of people of backward and most backward castes.

Taking to Twitter, the senior RJD leader asked that if Census can keep the count of animals, then why can't people be documented based on their castes.

"Census can count various animals, birds and other species, but not the people of different backward and most backward castes. If the purpose of the Census is the upliftment of the people, then how is it wrong to count thousands of castes and talk about the qualitative upliftment in the lives of the people of those castes?" tweeted Mr Yadav.

The debate around caste-based Census restarted during the discussion on the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2021 that was recently passed in the Monsoon session of Parliament.

Several Opposition parties, along with some BJP allies, demanded the caste-based Census.

Earlier in March, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs clarified that government has no proposal to release the caste data.

The ministry had said that raw caste data has been provided to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) for the classification and categorization of the data.

"Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 was conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and the then Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) in rural and urban areas respectively. The SECC 2011 data, excluding the caste data, have been finalized and published by MoRD and HUPA," the Home Ministry said.

"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 Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) for the classification and categorization of the data. As informed by MoSJE, there is no proposal to release the caste data at this stage," the Home Ministry added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)