Conduct national caste census to ensure social justice, says Congress

The Congress on Monday welcomed the Bihar governments move to release the findings of a caste census and called upon the Centre to immediately conduct a similar exercise at the national level to ensure social justice and provide a firm foundation for social empowerment programmes reported news agency PTIFormer Congress president Rahul Gandhi said the caste census of Bihar has proved that 84 per cent of people in the state are OBCs SCs and STs and their share should be according to their populationOut of 90 secretaries of the central government only 3 are OBC who handle only 5 per cent of Indias budget Therefore it is important to know the caste statistics of India Rahul Gandhi Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on XCongress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the UPA government led by the Congress had conducted a census but its results were not published by the Modi governmentThe Bihar government has just released the results of the Caste Survey conducted by it in the state While welcoming the initiative and recalling similar earlier surveys in other states like Karnataka by Congress governments the Indian National Congress reiterates its demand that the Union government conduct a national Caste Census at the earliest he said in a post on XThe UPA2 government had in fact completed this Census but its results were not published by the Modi government Such a Census has become essential for providing a firmer foundation for social empowerment programmes and for deepening social justice Jairam Ramesh also saidIf the Modi government does not carry out a caste census it will be conducted as soon as the Congress government is formed so that every section can get their right the opposition party saidThe Congress also said in a post on X that the figures of the castebased census in Bihar are indicative of the share of various classes in societyToday the country needs such a census so that their participation can be decided as per their population This is the reason why Rahul Gandhi ji is demanding a caste census in the entire countryThe Congress government in Karnataka has also conducted castebased census and we are always in favour of it the party saidThe Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Monday released findings of its muchawaited caste survey which revealed that OBCs and EBCs constitute a whopping 63 per cent of the states total population reported PTIAccording to the data released by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh the states total population stood at a little over 1307 crore out of which the Extremely Backward Classes 36 per cent were the largest social segment followed by the Other Backward Classes at 2713 per cent reported PTIThe survey also stated that Yadavs the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs was the largest in terms of the population accounting for 1427 per cent of the total reported PTIDalits also known as the Scheduled Castes accounted for 1965 per cent of the total population in the state which is also home to nearly 22 lakh 168 per cent people belonging to the Scheduled Tribes reported PTIThose belonging to the unreserved category and form the socalled upper castes comprise 1552 per cent of the total population reported PTIWith inputs from PTI