Caste census should be held at least once: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

PATNA: A day before meeting PM Narendra Modi with an all-party delegation from Bihar, chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar on Sunday reiterated that caste-based census should be held across the country at least once.
Responding to a media query, Nitish said the demand for caste census was an important issue. “We have been demanding it since long,” he added.
Nitish would lead an 11-member delegation of 10 political parties from Bihar and meet the PM in New Delhi on Monday to press for caste-based census in the country. The meeting will be held at 11am.
Asked if the demand for caste census would be met during his meeting with the PM, Nitish said, “Let us see.”
“If our demand is accepted, nothing could be better than that. It is not that only the people of Bihar are asking for the caste-based census. The people in the entire country are in favour of it. Leaders of all political parties from Bihar will together meet the PM and put forward the demand,” Nitish said.
The CM and some other members of the delegation reached Delhi on Sunday evening. Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who will represent RJD in the delegation, is already in Delhi.
The long-pending demand for holding caste census was revived in July this year after the Union government informed the Lok Sabha that it would not enumerate population caste-wise, except those from the SCs and STs.
Earlier, the state governments of Maharashtra and Odisha too had requested the Centre to collect caste details in the forthcoming census.
Reacting to the Centre’s reply in the Lok Sabha, Nitish had urged the Centre on July 24 to reconsider its decision. The Bihar assembly had unanimously passed a resolution on February 18, 2019 and again on February 27, 2020; demanding caste-wise enumeration of population. Nitish had said both the resolutions were sent to the Centre and it was requested to hold caste-wise enumeration of population during the Census-2021.