Parliamentary panel and social justice ministry bring OBC count back on table for Census 2021

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Census 2021, the politically loaded question of counting the other backward community (OBC) population in the country is back on the table.
The parliamentary standing committee on welfare of OBCs in a recent meeting recommended that a headcount of OBCs be conducted in the upcoming census, just like it is done for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, people aware of the development told ET.

The recommendation has moved a step ahead with the social justice and empowerment ministry forwarding it to both the home ministry and the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, they said. “Yes, the issue has been around for a while now,” Ganesh Singh, chairperson of the parliamentary panel on welfare of OBCs, said while confirming that the issue was discussed and a recommendation made to the government in its meeting held on July 14.

“The parliamentary committee did recommend it to the government,” he told ET over the phone. “It is the government which has to take a decision.”

Following this, the social justice ministry led by Thawar Chand Gehlot is learnt to have written to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner Vivek Joshi, pointing out that the panel has desired that information on OBCs be collected during Census 2021 by repeating the 2011 Social Economic Caste Census (SECC) model to determine the total OBC population.

The SECC 2011 — which the previous UPA government conducted after political demands — did collect OBC-related data, but this has never been made public citing technical errors in the database.

Now, the social justice ministry has requested for steps to be taken to repeat SECC in Census 2021, so that OBC welfare schemes can be targeted towards intended beneficiaries in a focused manner. The Rajasthan government led by Ashok Gehlot has also written to the home ministry, asking it to guide the registrar general to take necessary action towards collection of data on OBCs in the forthcoming census.

Several state assemblies, including Maharashtra, Bihar and Odisha have recently passed resolutions or sought the OBC count in Census 2021.

LONG-STANDING DEBATE
The issue of determining OBC population in the country has been a long debated one.

The home ministry had in a statement issued on August 31, 2018 said, “Census 2021 envisages collecting data on OBC for the first time.” But, by 2019 the script had changed.

ET then reported that the questionnaire prepared by the registrar general—a precursor to the main population enumeration exercise for the Census 2021—didn’t have a column for OBCs.

The situation hasn’t changed thereafter as far as the central government is concerned.

While several state assemblies, including Maharashtra, Bihar and Odisha have recently passed resolutions or sought the OBC count in Census 2021, the Centre has conveyed to them there is no such plan.

India’s decennial census collects data on scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs), but there is no such data on OBCs. In fact, estimates on OBC population vary widely from 35% to 65% of the population.

The Justice Rohini Commission looking into sub categorisation of OBCs was expected to offer some clarity on the issue, but it has yet to submit its report.