Bihar CM Nitish Kumar bats for caste-based census in India, says ‘will benefit people’
The Central government’s decision to not hold caste-based census except for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the population census 2021 has been strongly opposed by ruling Janata Dal (United) and opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar.
FollowPatna: Ahead of the Census India-2021, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday reiterated his demand for a caste-based census across the country and said this will help the government take a better decision for the development and welfare of people.
We have already kept our thoughts about caste-based census in the House in Feb 2020 and 2021. Caste-based census must be done at least once. Through it, they can gain benefits from schemes. If we know the exact number, we can work towards their betterment, said CM Nitish Kumar.
The Central government’s decision to not hold caste-based census except for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the population census 2021 has been strongly opposed by ruling Janata Dal (United) and opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. These two have hinted at launching a stir in favour of a caste-based enumeration of population.
Two days back, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told parliament that caste-wise enumeration of population will not be done except in the case of SCs and STs during Census, an exercise undertaken every 10 years, which got delayed in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
Incidentally, leader of the opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday appeared to be on the same page with the JD(U) as he termed Centre’s decision “unjustified”. RJD insiders said the party is planning to start an agitation to press for caste-based census in coming weeks.
Tejashwi, who is in New Delhi for the past few days, said that RJD had long campaigned for caste census as a tool to extend benefits of welfare schemes to the backward classes and asked if it will be possible to allocate funds to welfare schemes targeting the backward classes if their population was not known.
It's worth mentioning that the BJP and JDU had supported a unanimous Assembly resolution calling for a caste-based Census, in 2020.
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