Chennai, Sep 8 (PTI) The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Centre to collect details related to OBCs during the second phase of the 2027 census only on the basis of the official lists of the state and union governments that specifically identify such castes.
Minister for Backward Classes Welfare V Sampathkumar moved the resolution and briefly traced the history of the census in India.
The minister said that if people used different names to denote the same caste, including regional variations, the data collected could become unclear.
This could lead to difficulties in enumeration and may also prevent the full benefits of the census exercise from being realised.
“Hence, the exercise must stick to official names alone as per the notifications of the state and union governments to ensure social justice and equal justice,” he said.
The Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities notified by the state and union governments should be pre-loaded into the census enumeration portal/application, he said.
Selecting a caste from the pre-loaded data using a ‘drop-down menu’ would be the appropriate method, the minister noted.
The resolution said data must be collected solely based on the names contained in the official lists, and the ambiguous ‘open-column method’ for enumerating BCs, MBCs and DCs must be completely dispensed with.
It said: “In order to ensure social justice for all sections of society, this Assembly unanimously resolves to urge the union government to collect the caste details of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities during the second phase of the 2027 census of India, in the same manner as followed for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.” The collection of caste-wise details of OBCs has been omitted from censuses conducted after Independence.
Hence, it is essential to obtain accurate data based on the lists of Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities notified by the state and Union governments in accordance with the Constitution, the resolution said.
DMK MLAs were not present when the resolution was debated and passed, as they had been evicted following a ruckus.
After legislators, including those from the AIADMK and PMK, spoke in support of the resolution, it was passed unanimously. PTI SNR VGN SSK
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