PMK stresses upon caste count in 2021 Census

“The Central government had earlier announced that OBCs count would be taken in Census 2021, but now the Centre has retracted from its stand. The Centre is committing a grave injustice by not enumerating the count of OBCs,” said Ramadoss in a statement.

Pointing out the decision of then Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on August 31, 2018, that caste census would be taken for the first time in 2021 after independence and the count of OBCs would be taken, Ramadoss said that the information was given as a statement by the Home Ministry, but now the Union government has backed away from its promise.

“In a recent reply given by Census Commissioner Vivek Joshi it was informed that the Census 2021 would not include data on OBCs and people from economically weaker sections. The reply is a stark contradiction from the previous statement of the Central government,” said Ramadoss.

The PMK leader further said that the reason for not taking count of OBCs is not acceptable. “According to Census Commissioner the reason given for not taking OBCs count is that the difference in number of castes as Central government records have 6,285 castes while the records from states have 7,200 castes and if caste census is taken there will be problems. Actually, the reason for demanding caste census is to solve the differences in the number of castes,” said Ramadoss.