Forum raises doubts over questionnaire for Census 2027

A national symposium organised by Party for the Rights of OBCs on Sunday raised doubts over the questionnaire used for Census 2027 and also whether the caste census would be conducted along with it.

Speaking to reporters, V. Rathna Sabhapathy, president, Party for the Rights of OBCs said: "In the questionnaire, the 12th question, for OBC, there is no provision for collecting details of the OBC communities." When the Mandal Commission was constituted, there were about 3,000 odd OBC communities and in 2011, when the Socio-Economic Caste Census was conducted, many thousand communities were listed, the former TNPSC member said.

In 2019, Union Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the caste census would be conducted and later in the Supreme Court was informed that the caste census could not be conducted, he said. "Now, they are saying the caste census will be undertaken. We would be happy if the caste census is undertaken. But there are many doubts in the questionnaire," Mr. Rathna Sabhapathy said. Only if the socio-economic conditions of the OBCs are known, it could be decided on the reservation to be provided for them, he said.

Replying to a query, Mr. Rathna Sabhapathy further said questions in the questionnaire should be such that they should collect information if the person was OBC, and if so, which community was he/she part of, and how many of the family have obtained higher education and how many of them were in government service.