Akhilesh Yadav, JDU make strong pitch in Lok Sabha for caste census

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Janata Dal-United's Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lalan' on Tuesday made strong demands for caste census to bring out the population of different groups.

They made the demand in the Lok Sabha while taking part in the debate on the motion of thanks to the President's Address.

Yadav, who is a Member of Parliament from Azamgarh, said that demands were made by his party for caste census when UPA was in power but the "Congress did not agree".

"BJP will also not do it. It is a reality. Why do we want to hide?" he asked.

"If we do not get to know how many of us are there, what is the use (of the census)," he added

Singh, whose party JD-U is an ally of BJP in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), also made a strong pitch for the caste census.

He said the government will be able to translate its slogan of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishvas' into reality if it knows who is standing in the last queue of development.

He said the population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is marked during the census and schemes for their welfare made accordingly.

The JD-U member said the census also gives a figure of the population in terms of religion but not of castes.

He said if one were to go by the claims made by various communities about their population, the total population of the country should be three times the present number.

"It should get clear and we should know the actual situation. If the government knows what is the population of each caste, it will help in making policies," he said.

The JD-U leader said that the last caste census was held in 1931 and Mandal Commission also used that data for its recommendations.

The Union Cabinet had in December last year approved the proposal for conducting the Census of India 2021 at a cost of Rs. 8,754.23 crore and updation of National Population Register at a cost of Rs. 3,941.35 crore.