CPI M Demands Immediate Census and Caste Enumeration, Slams Centre for Delay

Madurai:The 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has strongly criticised the Union Government for the prolonged delay in conducting the 2021 Census, which was due over three years ago. In a resolution adopted at the Congress, the party expressed deep concern over the lack of clarity on when the decadal exercise would be conducted, despite its critical importance for governance and policy making.

The CPI M pointed out that the deadline to freeze administrative boundaries—essential for census operations—remains not extended beyond June 2024, raising further doubts about the government’s intent. The Centre initially cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the delay, but four years later, there has been no progress or official timeline announced.

Historically, the census has been conducted every ten years without fail, even during crises such as the Second World War in 1941. The party emphasised that census data is vital for planning policies across sectors, providing detailed insights on demographics, rural-urban distribution, occupational patterns, linguistic groups, and the socio-economic conditions of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Resolution also reiterated CPI M's support for a caste census, highlighting the absence of reliable data on Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the general enumeration. The party argued that a caste census is necessary to understand the link between caste, poverty, education, and access to opportunities. It would expose ongoing disparities and evaluate the true impact of welfare and reservation policies.

Further, the party blamed the delay for stalling the implementation of the one-third reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures, which is tied to the next delimitation based on updated census data. CPI M accused the BJP-led government of harbouring an anti-scientific attitude toward data collection, suppressing or distorting surveys, and resisting a caste census out of fear that it would challenge the Sangh Parivar's homogenising narrative.

The CPI M demanded that the Union government immediately conduct both the long-overdue general census and a caste census. It called on all democratic forces in the country to unite and press for this essential step toward scientific policy making and social justice.