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.
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