Center says cast-wise enumeration is not ideal instrument

VISAKHAPATNAM: The minister of state in the ministry of home affairs Nityanand Rai said that the population Census is not an ideal instrument for caste-wise or Other Backward Class (OBC) enumeration of the population. The government of India has not enumerated caste-wise populations other than Schedule Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Census since Independence.
He informed the Rajya Sabha that the ministry is aware that a resolution to conduct a caste-based census has been passed by AP Legislative Assembly. The census schedules were designed in consultation with various stakeholders including central ministries.
He said the National Sample Survey (NSS) is not specifically designed to estimate the population of a country as well as that of any social group. The information on household social groups is collected in a household-based survey of NSS for categorization purposes only.