‘Scrap misleading questionnaire’: Kharge, Rahul Gandhi write to PM Modi on caste census

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have raised concerns over the proposed method for collecting caste data in the upcoming census, addressed in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They argue that using an open-ended question to record caste details could lead to confusion and inaccuracies. Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Rahul Gandhi, his Lok Sabha counterpart, emphasized that reliable caste figures are crucial for crafting social justice policies and assessing communities’ socio-economic status.

They expressed worries that the open-ended approach could result in the counting of millions of castes, with people from the same caste being recorded under different names due to varying spellings and sub-castes across India. This could yield misleading data, affecting estimates of community sizes and impacting decisions related to education, employment, government planning, and social justice schemes.

The leaders proposed using a predetermined list of castes, accessible through a dropdown menu, rather than allowing free-form entries. They suggested creating such a list using existing government resources like the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes list and data from the Anthropological Survey of India. They cited successful caste surveys in Telangana and Bihar, which employed caste lists.

The Congress leaders objected to the government's decision to proceed with the current open-ended questionnaire and called for a cancellation and the creation of a new census based on consultation with political parties, experts, and the public. They stressed the importance of accurately recording the number of individuals belonging to each caste and community.