"Historic step": Union Minister Kishan Reddy lauds centre's decision to conduct caste census

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], June 17 (ANI): Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Monday lauded the centre's decision to conduct the 16th population census, which would include caste enumeration, and labelled it a "historic step."
Advocating for the caste census, he said that the work at the policy level with regard to the welfare schemes, budget allocation, political reservations would be worked upon in a proper manner.
"The government of India has taken a historic step. Since Independence, the general census will entail a census of the backward classes. Today, the government of India has issued the notification. There will also be a caste census; it is a very big decision. After this, be it welfare activity, scheme, budget allocation, political reservation, everything will be worked upon in a proper manner," Reddy told ANI.
Speaking about the arrangements for the Covid-19 cases, Reddy said that he was visiting his Lok Sabha constituency (Secunderabad) and the hospitals here to inspect whether big hospitals have necessary arrangements for Covid cases.
"Recently, in a cabinet meeting, PM Modi directed all the ministers to visit big hospitals in their respective constituencies. It was to ensure that big hospitals had all the necessary arrangements for Covid cases...In this regard, today, I have come here to the Gandhi Hospital in my (Lok Sabha) constituency. The hospital's senior officials have assured me that the hospital is completely ready for the Covid patients," the Union Minister said.
On Monday, the central government notified the population census, the process of which will begin in March 2027.
As per a gazette notification released by the Ministry of Home Affairs, "In exercise of the powers conferred by Section three of the Census Act 1948 and in suppression of the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Home Affairs dated March 26, 2018, the Central Government declared that a census of the population of India shall be taken during the year 2027, as per a circular released by the Ministry of Home Affairs."
The reference date for the census shall be March 1, 2027, except for the Union territory of Ladakh and the snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Furthermore, the reference date for the Union Territory of Ladakh, snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will be October 1, 2026.
The Census will be conducted in two phases. In phase 1, House Listing Operation (HLO), the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected.
Subsequently, in the second phase, Population Enumeration (PE), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected.
Caste enumeration will also be done during the census.
For Census activities, about 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh Census functionaries would be deployed. This is the 16th Census since its beginning and the 8th since independence.
The ensuing Census will be conducted through digital means using mobile applications.
Provision of Self-enumeration would also be made available to the people.
Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage. (ANI)