Tamil Nadu Assembly adopts resolution urging Centre to conduct caste census

The call for a caste-based census has been a contentious issue in national politics. In Tamil Nadu, the demand has been particularly strong due to the state’s history of caste-based reservations and social justice movements.

There was 16 percent reservation for SCs and STs, and 25 percent for other backward classes (OBC) in 1951. The Karunanidhi regime, in 1971, had increased the OBC reservation to 30%, and for SCs and STs to 18%. His third regime conferred a 20% exclusive reservation, a radical move, for most backward classes (MBCs) by taking them away from the OBC category. The impact of this reform was that, for instance, 187 seats were reserved for MBC students in 1989-90 as compared to 65 in 1988-89.

During the debate in the assembly, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) MLA R Arul voiced his disagreement with the resolution, suggesting that the state government itself could conduct a caste-based census. However, Law Minister S Regupathy explained the legal constraints. “Though the state government could undertake the exercise of a caste-based census under the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, the Census Act could override this,” he said.

CM Stalin also addressed the House, recalling his communication with PM Narendra Modi in 2023, where he demanded a caste census alongside the general census. “The decisions and acts of a state government can get legal protection only if they are done on the basis of data collected by the Centre. If state governments collect data through surveys, these may be stayed by the courts in the future,” he said.

Stalin said that under Section 3 of the Census Act, only the Union government is authorised to conduct a census. While there is an argument that a state government could conduct a caste-based census as per Collection of Statistics Act, 2008, this Act only permits the collection of data on socio-economic conditions, not a comprehensive caste census.

The resolution came after PMK floor leader G K Mani raised the issue of a 10.5% reservation for the Vanniyar community.

Mani demanded the implementation of separate reservation for Vanniyars, and Stalin replied this would be possible only after a caste-based census was conducted.

Letter to PM

CM M K Stalin in a letter to PM Narendra Modi Wednesday urged the integration of a caste-based census with the national decadal census for effective policy-making and ensuring equitable development.

Stalin talked about the socio-economic imperatives. “…I consider that the fruits of development must reach all sections of society, particularly the most marginalised. For framing policies and targeting specific interventions for the socio-economic development of the underprivileged, census data has always been the basis.”

“When laws and acts are enacted on basis of verifiable socio-economic indicators drawn from the decadal census report, it gets legal validity. However, no contemporary data is available since the last caste census conducted in India in 1931,” the letter said.