Without caste census, OBCs will forever be denied social justice
P.N. Sankaran chronicles the debate on caste census, argues that it is indeed feasible and shows how every effort to ensure representation in the State of all historically oppressed communities is bound to fail without such a census
On 26 February 2021, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government on a petition seeking caste-based census in the country. The petition said that such a census would address the lack of data needed to provide adequate reservations in jobs and admissions to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC). The proforma for the 2021 census has been announced, the petition said, adding it has 32 columns with headers Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc but has no mention of the OBCs. It sought urgent court intervention to introduce such a proforma for the 2021 census that has a column for the OBCs. Inadequat