OBC data not in 2011 Census,says Moily

Union Minister of Law and Justice M Veerappa Moily Thursday said there was no proposal to collect separate demographic data of OBCs.

On Tuesday,Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken had said that the next population enumeration exercise,as part of the decennial census,would be conducted during February 9-28,2011,but he had steered clear of the specific issue of caste in the census exercise.

Data on demographic and socio-economic parameters like age,sex,SC/ST status,literacy,religion,mother tongues/languages known,economic activity status and migration are collected as part of the decennial Census. The last caste-based census was held in 1931,but in recent years,especially after the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report,there have been demands for including caste in Census.

Moily,who’s credited with streamlining engineering admission process structure in Karnatata (where caste-based reservations for various OBC communities often posed a systemic problem,until Moily,as then chief minister,streamlined the process),has also been known as a votary of caste-based census.

However,in response to a question from Sameer Bhujbal on Thursday,Moily said,“As per information received from Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment,that ministry has no such proposal.” The NCP MP from Nashik had asked “whether the government has any proposal to collect a separate demographic data of OBC”.

Neither the question nor the answer referred to the census exercise (and the proposal for a caste-based census).

The office of the Registrar General of India,that oversees the Census exercise,comes under the Home Ministry.