Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes in its first meeting called to decide the agenda for the year ahead has picked “caste census” as one of the subjects that it will be deliberating on, after demand from several Opposition members who were supported by JD(U) MP Giridhari Yadav. So far, BJP ally JD(U), which occupies two berths in the Council of Ministers, has not strongly pushed for it.
According to the sources, a list of 30 subjects were placed before the panel during the meeting. DMK MP T.R. Baalu, was the first person to flag the need for a threadbare debate on caste census. He was backed by Congress MP Manickam Tagore. It is learnt that Mr. Tagore said the committee must seek an explanation from Home Ministry on the status of preparations for the long-anticipated decadal census, which will pave way for a caste count too. He was backed by Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee. Mr. Yadav, while giving the example of Bihar, where the government carried out a successful count and published the findings, said there is a need to carry out the exercise across the country. He advocated for the panel to take the issue for in depth evaluation.
