NCSC summons Punjab census chief over casteist term

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has intervened following protests by farmers over a derogatory, casteist term included in the state’s newly launched digital enumeration portal.

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) on Tuesday took serious cognizance of the use of casteist words in the official list prepared for the upcoming nationwide decadal counting operations, issuing a notice to Navjot Khosa, the director of census operations for Punjab.

Navjot Khosa, the director of census operations for Punjab, was issued a notice from the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) on Tuesday. (HT file photo)

This intervention follows widespread public outrage and protests led by farm and rural labour bodies in Punjab, including the Dehati Mazdoor Sabha and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Sabha, who discovered an offensive, derogatory term embedded within the online caste-selection column of the self-enumeration form.

The controversial portal, which went live for citizens on April 30 as part of the first phase of the digitised national counting exercise, has drawn flak from community leaders who allege that the inclusion of such language indicates a deeply rooted caste bias within sections of the bureaucracy responsible for designing official state documents.

In its directive to the directorate of census operations, the apex statutory body has demanded an immediate, comprehensive explanation regarding the oversight, while agitated labour unions continue to press both the central and state administrations for swift punitive action against the drafting officials and the immediate expunging of the offensive vocabulary from the nationwide data-collection framework.