Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary has backed the central government’s decision to conduct a caste census, calling it a necessary and long-overdue step that aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inclusive governance model. While acknowledging the political context around such a move, Chaudhary maintained that data-driven policymaking is critical for advancing social justice.
“See, we are a democracy. Every decision taken by any government is for taking that direction forward based on feedback of people. So political compulsion will be there behind every decision taken by a parliamentary democracy,” he said in an interview with Moneycontrol, while responding to concerns that the move may be driven more by electoral urgency than genuine policy intent.
However, he firmly defended the census, highlighting its potential to reshape welfare delivery. “It was a demand and I think, data is not a problematic approach. Issue will be in capture of that data and analysing the data and it will yield to kind policies and programs which could be targeted in the future, which will be very good for our polity. It will take forward the cause of social justice. It is being done after decades, and I think this was something core to the prime minister’s world view, on how he wanted to take everyone forward along with national cause,” he said.
He also underscored that this isn’t a rushed political gimmick but a carefully planned and phased exercise. “I think time is also being given… it is being done scientifically,” he added, referring to the March 2027 deadline for the survey.
Citing past examples of flawed state-level surveys, Chaudhary warned of potential data inconsistencies. “We have seen in the past, some Congress ruled states where you’ve seen… for instance, in Telangana, when the census was done 10 years ago, it showed the backward population at 52%, and when the state did it again, it showed a drop of about 6 percentage points. So then, there is a backlash. Anyway, states don’t have the mandate to do a caste enumeration, they can do a survey. How that survey will actually lead to policies and programmes is a question…”
He also hit out at the Congress party, accusing it of selective and incomplete action. “The Congress did it and they are not publishing it. Why they are not publishing it in the states where they did it? Why didn’t they do before this when they were ruling the country for so long? So, I think let’s not criticise and jump the gun. The government has taken a decision and they have given sufficient time, it’s going to be conducted till March 2027,” he said.
Chaudhary also flagged the key concern of underreporting. “I have concerns… a lot of time people will not tell you… so the errors is that exercise, they need to be rooted out and that’s why I think, a lot of thought has come into this process flow and hopefully some good policy impacts can be made,” he said.
The Centre earlier this month announced that the next nationwide census will commence on March 1, 2027. However, for the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the census exercise will begin in October, 2026.
The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990. The last Census was conducted in 2011 in two phases.
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