CWC member Sudip Roy Barman seeks implementation of women reservation Bill from 2024

The resolution towards the demands was adopted in the two-day long meeting of the CWC in Hyderabad recently.

Speaking on the CWC meeting at the Congress Bhawan in Agartala on Friday, Barman said the Narendra Modi-led central government has refused to conduct a caste census.

“In the CWC meeting, we took some resolutions to conduct a caste-based census and to increase the existing upper limit of reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs,” said Roy Barman.

Reading out the CWC resolution, he added, “This refusal in the face of a universal demand has exposed the BJP’s lack of commitment to social and economic justice and its bias against the backward classes, Dalits and tribal people. In this context, the CWC also calls for increasing the existing upper limit of reservations for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs.”

He further said that the then central government under Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2011 had announced to conduct a caste census after considering various options suggested by different political parties.

Prior to this, the caste census was conducted in 1931 and this practice had been given up as a matter of policy post-Independence.

The first caste-based census was launched at Shankhola village under Hezamara block in Tripura West district on June 29 in 2011.