BJD welcomes Union Cabinet’s decision to include caste enumeration in census exercise

Former Odisha chief minister and BJD President Naveen Patnaik. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Former Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal President Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday welcomed the decision of the Union Cabinet to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census stating that his party had been repeatedly demanding countrywide caste census and removal of 50% cap on reservation.

Following the announcement of inclusion of caste enumeration in the forthcoming census, Mr. Patnaik in posting on social networking site ‘X’ said, “Welcome the decision of the Union Cabinet to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census. BJD has been repeatedly demanding countrywide caste census and removal of 50% cap on reservation.”

“In Odisha, we also took certain concrete steps in 2023 to enumerate the number of people belonging to different classes to help us in making plans for their development and upliftment. The same objectives would now be met by this decision of the Central government to conduct a caste-based census,” he pointed out.

“We in BJD always stand for social justice, especially for backward classes such as scheduled tribe, scheduled caste and Other Backward Class,” Mr. Patnaik said.

The then Naveen Patnaik Government had formed Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes (OSCBC) and conducted survey of Other Backward Classes belonging to 211 castes on their social and educational status in 2023.

People (heads or senior members of the family) were asked to come to common service centres, public distribution centres and Anganwadi centres with their ration cards and Aadhaar cards to fill up an exhaustive questionnaire.

Though the report of OBC Commission was officially not made public, it was revealed that over 39.31% of Odisha’s population was socially and economically backward classes (SEBCs).

Though Opposition had questioned the methods of conducting survey, the findings were alarming. The survey had revealed that 37.6% of SEBC population had access to primary level of education, while 10.1 per cent are still illiterate. Moreover, the representation of the SEBCs in government jobs was also very low – at only 2.8%.

In Odisha, Scheduled Tribes enjoy 22.5% followed by scheduled caste (16.25%). Though OBCs have bigger proportion in population, they get is 11.25%. Since reservation has been capped at 50%, OBCs have to contend with 11.25%.

In 2021, a delegation of BJD MPs met Home Minister Amit Shah and apprised him of the need for a caste-based Census. In same year ahead of last panchayat elections, the regional party had announced to provide at least 27% of reservation to OBC candidates.