OBC groups seek mandatory caste coding in Census, warn against ‘unscientific’ enumeration

Booth Level Officers (BLOs) distribute Enumeration Forms to residents during a house-to-house visit as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad. | Photo Credit: Ramakrishna. G A national OBC conference on Sunday (August 30, 2026) demanded that the Central government make caste enumeration mandatory in the nationwide Census and assign a separate “unique code” to every caste. Conducting a Census without these measures would be a waste of public money, and the exercise should be halted until a nationwide consensus is reached on the issue, OBC leaders said.The conference was chaired by former IAS officer and chairman of the Backwards Classes Intellectual Forum T. Chiranjeevulu, and All India OBC Students Association president G. Kiran Kumar. Without assigning a unique code to every caste, the speakers said, the Census could not be scientifically sound. “Just as separate columns are provided for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, separate columns should also be created for OBCs and the General Category,” several speakers at the conference said.DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson and professor Yogendra Yadav, among others, warned that the approximately ₹12,800 crore being spent by the Centre on the Census would be wasted if the exercise were conducted merely as a formality without proper scientific planning. The speakers also cautioned the government that a nationwide movement could follow if their demand was ignored.The Congress and other Opposition parties have also objected to the proposed open-ended format for recording caste details, arguing that the same caste may be known by different names, sub-castes, and linguistic variants in different parts of the country. Published - August 30, 2026 09:30 pm IST