Kerala MP moves private Bill to conduct Census every ten years

Kerala MP Haris Beeran has moved a Private Member’s Bill in the Rajya Sabha to amend the Census Act, 1948 to insert a provision to conduct at least one Census in the whole of India every ten years.

Mr. Beeran, who belongs to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), moved the Census Amendment Bill, 2024, arguing that the conduct of a Census for the entire country at a regular interval is a must, as a majority of the country’s population would otherwise be unable to access several schemes, benefits and services.

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“Neither the Constitution nor the Census Act, 1948 as it stands today, mandates a census to be conducted at regular intervals. However, the census on the national level has so far been conducted every ten years,” the Bill said.

Six-year delay

The last Population Census in India was conducted in 2011. The next edition, expected in 2021, was initially delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first phase of the next Census exercise will now start on April 1 and conclude in February 2027, a delay of six years from the regular schedule.

The Amendment Bill said that a “periodical census is a legal imperative for the reason that constitutionally-mandated policies of social justice, which include reservations in electoral constituencies, education and public employments, cannot be pursued effectively without correct population data, particularly caste-wise data.”

Caste census impact

It added that detailed caste-wise data is necessary to avoid and correct wrongful inclusions of undeserving castes and exclusions of deserving castes, and to guard against a few dominant castes in a reserved category crowding out others.

“It is also needed for sub-categorising castes within a reserved category and to determine the income/wealth criterion for the creamy layer. It is also a moral imperative for the reason that the absence of detailed caste-wise data has helped a coterie of elites, among upper castes and dominant Other Backward Classes (OBCs), to corner a disproportionate share of the nation’s assets, incomes, and positions of power,” the Bill said.

The first Census of Independent India was conducted in 1951 and the Union government continued the practice of conducting a national Census every ten years after that, without any delays, until 2011. The Bill noted that te Census to be conducted in 2021 was postponed due to the pandemic and the country still awaits a nationwide data collection.