The Odisha government on Saturday decided to move the Centre seeking to conduct socio-economic caste enumeration simultaneously along with the general census that has been planned for 2021. The state cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, passed the resolution.
The state government wants the Centre to conduct the caste enumeration, either by inserting suitable columns in the existing census format or by prescribing a separate format for a simultaneous enumeration of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) and other backward classes/castes (OBC). The move comes three days after the Maharashtra cabinet passed a similar resolution to move the Centre for such a caste-based census.
“Unavailability of reliable and authentic data about the exact numbers of the SEBC and OBC/castes, geographical areas of their spread and density has been a huge challenge in ensuring focused and outcome specific planning”, said Pratap Jena, Odisha’s Panchayati Raj and Law minister.
Although the Centre had conducted a separate Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) in 2011 to collect details of SEBCs and OBCs after the general census exercise, the full data was not released. The Cabinet also resolved to appeal to the Centre that these details are published without any delay.