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TN assembly approves caste census resolution
Stalin said that state governments have limitations in collecting data on caste and drafting laws based on them which could face legal challenges
Chennai The Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution moved by chief minister MK Stalin demanding the Union government to carry out a nation-wide caste census along with the general census. The demand for a caste census was one of the key issues raised by the INDIA bloc during the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
“This House considers that caste-based population census is essential to formulate policies in order to ensure equal rights and equal opportunities in education, economy and employment to every citizen of India,” the resolution read. “This House, therefore unanimously urges the Union Government to immediately commence the census work, which is due from the year 2021 along with caste-based population census, this time.”
Addressing questions by political parties on why the state cannot conduct this exercise on its own, Stalin said that state governments have limitations in collecting data on caste and drafting laws based on them which could face legal challenges.
Legislators of the BJP and its ally Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) urged the ruling DMK to undertake the caste census on its own. However, Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK backed the resolution.
On Wednesday, AIADMK legislators were suspended from the assembly during their attempts to raise the issue of the Kallakurichi tragedy, which has claimed the lives of 63 people. “It was our AIADMK government which began the work for a caste census,” Leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) told reporters after being evicted. “But the DMK which came after us is just doing drama. The state has the power to conduct a caste census.”
EPS had appointed a committee headed by retired justice A Kulasekaran in 2020 to collect quantifiable data on castes, communities and tribes in Tamil Nadu. He blamed the DMK which formed the government in May 2021 for not giving the panel a six-month extension. BJP state president K Annamalai said that Stalin had a moral obligation to explain why he had not given an extension to the committee. “We also wish to inform the TN CM that the Socio-economic Caste Census in 2011, which the Congress Government never released despite 99.3% enumeration by December 2013, was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Rural Development through the respective “State Governments”,” Annamalai said in a post on X.
Under section 3 of The Census Act, 1948, only the Union government is empowered to conduct population census, the chief minister said in the assembly. “Many say that state governments are empowered to conduct caste census under the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008…Under part A of Section 3 of the Act state governments cannot collect data on communities listed under 7th Schedule of the Constitution,” Stalin said. Section 32 of the Act says Census data under The Census Act cannot be collected and a related case is pending before the Supreme Court, he added.
“The only option is to conduct the population census by the Union government. That’s why we insist that caste census should be conducted by them,” he said, blaming the BJP-led Union government for delaying the exercise. Stalin had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2023 demanding a caste census. “In 2020, the Union government cited Covid-19 pandemic as a reason for not conducting the census,” Stalin said. “What has stopped them from conducting the exercise since 2021?”
