New Delhi, Oct 9: The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
The party made the assertion in a resolution passed by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by former AICC presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, senior leaders K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, among others.
In its resolution, the CWC welcomed the Bihar government releasing the findings of a caste survey in the state.
The disparity between representation and share in population revealed by the final figures of the survey highlights the urgent need to take effective steps to ensure social justice, the CWC said.
It also welcomed the Justice Rohini Commission’s objective of sub-categorisation within the OBC community, but underlined that it will remain incomplete without detailed data on the socio-economic position of various communities, which can be obtained either from the still unreleased data from the 2011 socio-economic and caste census or a fresh caste census.
“These developments show the critical importance of a nationwide caste census, which will reveal an accurate picture of the socio-economic position of communities across the country and provide a sound, data-driven basis for policies to strengthen the foundations of social justice and ensure inclusive development,” the CWC said.
The resolution of the Congress’s top decision-making body alleged that the Narendra Modi government has “cheated” the OBC community and other deprived sections of the country by not releasing the data of the 2011 socio-economic and caste census and not carrying out a fresh caste census.
“It has also failed in its constitutional duty by inordinately postponing the decadal Census that ought to have been conducted in 2021 or soon thereafter. It is a matter of shame that India remains the only country in the G20 that has failed to carry out the Census,” the resolution said.
The demand for the caste census was repeatedly expressed in state after state by multiple delegations during the Bharat Jodo Yatra and finds voice in the Raipur declaration of the 85th Congress Plenary Session, the party noted.
Therefore, the Congress promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste sensus as part of the normal decadal census, which was due in 2021.
The party also pledged to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, ensuring adequate representation for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and OBCs.(PTI)
