Cabinet nod to caste census with BPL count
The government on Thursday gave its formal nod to the politically-sensitive caste census. This will be done along with the head count of those living “Below Poverty Line” (BPL). A separate BPL census data is collected every after five year to better target government’s subsidy programmes.
A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The exercise of enumerating caste and religion along with BPL head count would begin in June and will be completed by this yearend. Interestingly, this time the BPL census will take place in both rural and urban areas. Earlier it used to be only for rural areas. Informing about the decision, information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni said, “The enumeration on the basis of caste and religion would be part of the BPL census, that would begin in June and end by December this year.”
The mammoth exercise of caste census is going to be the first in Independent India. Last time such an exercise was done by the British government in 1931. It would be a paper-less exercise and the responsibility of counting residents of India with their caste and religion would lie on the states through low-cost hand-held devices, which are being manufactured by state-run Bharat Electronics Limited.
The results of the census will determine the proportion of caste and region of India’s population among the BPL category. The BPL data for urban and rural poor would be utilised for the 12th Five Year Plan, the targeted subsidy schemes as well as the Unique Identification programme (UID). Though the overall data on caste and religion would be made public, the individual’s caste and religion will remain confidential.
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