Caste census from June to Sept. 2011: Finally india geared up for Caste devide

Independent Media



The Centre will carry out the first caste-based census exercise in the country between June and September next year.
Union home minister P. Chidambaram said the government has decided that “caste will be canvassed without affecting the integrity of the head count of Census 2011”.

“Accordingly, it was decided that caste will be canvassed through a separate house-to-house survey between June and September 2011,” he said while speaking at a press conference on Friday.
Conceding the demands raised by several political parties, the Centre had last month decided to carry out a separate caste census next year. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said in Parliament recently that all political parties had supported the idea of including caste in the census and that there was no need for any “apprehension” over the issue.
Mr Mukherjee’s assurance had come after leaders of the BJP, JD(U), BSP and Samajwadi Party wanted to know what had happened to the government’s promise to carry out a caste census. The group of ministers set up to examine the issue had opined that a caste census should be carried out during the house enumeration exercise.