Revise census questionnaire to ensure accurate caste data, Kharge-Rahul write to PM Modi

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the withdrawal of the existing caste census questionnaire, warning that its methodology could produce inaccurate and unusable data.

In their letter dated 20 August, the two leaders urged the government to prepare a new questionnaire after consulting political parties, subject experts and members of the public.

They argued that reliable caste and socio-economic data were essential for formulating effective policies on education, employment, welfare and social justice.

Kharge, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Gandhi objected particularly to the use of an open-ended question for recording caste.

Under the proposed format, enumerators would enter the caste name provided by each respondent without selecting it from a standardised list.

The Congress leaders warned that the same caste was often known by different names, sub-castes and linguistic variations across states and regions. Recording all these descriptions separately could split a single community across thousands of entries and make it difficult to determine its actual population, they said.

They maintained that incorrect population estimates would also distort assessments of communities’ socio-economic conditions, potentially disadvantaging backward and other marginalised groups.

Congress flags absence of OBC category

The leaders also questioned why the census questionnaire did not specifically mention Other Backward Classes.

They argued that without a clearly defined backward-class category, the exercise would not accurately establish the country’s OBC population.

As an alternative, Kharge and Gandhi proposed a pre-prepared drop-down list containing the official names of castes. Enumerators would select the relevant entry from the list rather than record each response as a new description.

They pointed out that standardised lists are already used for enumerating Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Congress leaders suggested compiling the list from existing official records, including government lists of socially and educationally backward classes and research conducted by the Anthropological Survey of India.

They also cited the caste surveys conducted in Bihar and Telangana, where standardised lists were used to classify responses. Copies of the lists adopted by the two states were attached to their letter.

Kharge and Gandhi said they did not accept the caste census in its present form and called on the Centre to redesign the questionnaire to ensure that every caste and community was counted accurately.

They said a credible enumeration should reveal not only the numerical strength of different communities but also their social and economic circumstances, allowing the findings to meaningfully inform public policy.

With agency inputs