Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Friday raised concerns over the proposed methodology for caste enumeration in the 2027 Census, warning that an open-ended system could split the same community across thousands of entries and undermine the reliability of the exercise.
Calling caste enumeration an “instrument of social justice” rather than merely an exercise in collecting statistics, the Congress leader urged the Centre to establish a standardised national caste list and coding framework in consultation with states. He argued that people should be allowed to report local, regional and sub-caste identities, but these should subsequently be mapped to standard categories to ensure communities are counted accurately.
Warns of multiple entries for same caste
Parameshwara said an open-ended approach without a standardised and verified framework could lead to members of the same community reporting different spellings, sub-caste names, regional identities and locally used names.
“The result could be thousands of separate entries representing the same community,” he said, questioning how policymakers could determine the actual population of a community if its members were scattered across several categories in the final dataset.
He said the Union government should develop a scientific framework for enumerating Other Backward Classes similar to the standardised lists used for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Centre and states, he pointed out, already maintain lists of backward and socially and educationally backward communities and have decades of administrative experience in implementing reservation and welfare programmes.
“There is no reason why the Union Government cannot bring these lists together, develop standard caste codes and create a proper system for recording alternative names, sub-castes and regional identities. This is not technically impossible. It is a question of political will,” he said.
Seeks national caste coding framework
Parameshwara proposed assigning every community a standard identity and enumeration code while retaining the flexibility for respondents to mention genuine alternative or local identities. Those responses could then be mapped to the appropriate standard category during processing.
The objective, he said, must be to “identify every community correctly, count every community accurately and use that data to deliver justice”.
He called on the Centre to harmonise Central and state OBC and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes lists while protecting state-specific identities. A transparent mechanism should also be established to map alternative names, sub-castes and regional identities and to record and subsequently verify genuinely unlisted communities, he said.
Centre should learn from states
Citing Karnataka’s Social and Educational Survey and caste-based exercises undertaken in Bihar and Telangana, Parameshwara said the Union government should draw lessons from the experience accumulated by states.
“Karnataka is ready to share its experience and expertise with the Union Government,” he said, calling for consultations with state governments, political parties, social justice experts and community representatives before the methodology is finalised.
He argued that accurate caste data was essential for policymaking in areas including reservation, education, employment, welfare, economic opportunities and political representation.
“We need data to understand who has access to opportunity and who continues to be excluded. We need data to understand the real extent of social and educational backwardness,” Parameshwara said.
He said accurate enumeration was particularly significant for AHINDA communities, a political and social formulation encompassing minorities, backward classes and Dalits.
‘Caste Census an instrument of social justice’
Parameshwara accused the BJP-led Centre of resisting caste-wise enumeration for years and said the Congress had consistently demanded updated data on the country’s social composition.
Referring to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s slogan “Jiski Jitni Sankhya Bhaari, Uski Utni Bhagidari”, he said the principle of representation according to population had become central to the broader debate on social justice.
“For me, the Caste Census is not an exercise in collecting statistics. It is an instrument of social justice,” Parameshwara said.
He argued that merely adding a caste-related question to the Census questionnaire would not fulfil the purpose of the exercise if the resulting information could not be scientifically consolidated and used for policymaking.
“The people of India did not demand a caste census merely so that a caste question could be added to a questionnaire. They demanded it because India needs to know the truth about its social composition,” he said.
Calling on the Centre to reconsider the proposed open-ended methodology, Parameshwara said India needed reliable caste data to shape the next generation of social justice policies.
The Union government, he added, must either conduct a “genuine caste census” or explain why it was “afraid of counting the truth”.