Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi reiterated current CM Nitish Kumar’s proposal for a caste-based census on Saturday, saying it is critical for the country’s growth.
Jitan Ram Manjhi took to Twitter to say, “Why can’t the castes be counted like the snakes, tigers, and goats in the country? The caste census is important for the country’s growth.”
“It needs to be determined which caste has the most population and the largest proportion in the government,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reiterated his call for a caste-based census on Saturday, claiming that the process will aid in the development of welfare programmes for all impoverished people, not only Dalits.
“At least once, a caste-based census should be conducted. It will be easy for the government to identify poor other than the Dalits and help formulate schemes for their welfare”, Nitish Kumar said as quoted by PTI.
Nitish Kumar said the Bihar Assembly approved unanimous resolutions for a caste-based census twice in 2019 and 2020, and encouraged the federal government to “think about it.”
“We have already passed resolutions in the assembly favouring a caste-based census in 2019 and 2020. We also sent it to the central government. We have been raising this issue since 1990. The caste-based census must be done at least once for the development and welfare of people belonging to other than SCs and STs. The central government must consider it,” the Bihar CM said.
Both Jitan Ram Manjhi and Nitish Kumar made their comments just days after the Centre notified Parliament that the census will not count castes other than SCs and STs.
“The government has decided as a matter of policy not to count caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in the census,” Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Since the previous caste census in 1931, India has not conducted one.
