ISF MLA Nawsad Siddique on Tuesday urged the Bengal government to independently carry out a caste census of the state if the Centre declined to do it nationally.
Making a special mention in the Assembly, the MLA from Bhangar said: “There hasn’t been a full-fledged caste-based census since 1931. It's been almost 100 years, and if such a census is not conducted now, how will we understand the condition of the people of Bengal and the country?"
“I urge the state government to conduct a comprehensive caste census like that in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. They did it all on their own. If the Centre refuses to conduct any caste-based census, Bengal should take this responsibility for the betterment of the state,” he said.
The MLA pointed out that although a socio-economic caste census was conducted across the country in 2011, the report remained unpublished.
He said that without a caste-based census, it was "impossible" to accurately assess the socio-economic status of the backward classes and design any development project for them.
Despite pressure in recent years from the national Opposition to conduct a Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), along with the population census, the BJP-led Centre has skirted the issue, deeming it an administrative and logistic challenge.
Experts believe that the BJP is concerned that a caste census would not only reveal the population of each caste but also the socio-economic profiles of its members, which could potentially expose that after 10 years of BJP rule in the Centre, the upper castes still hold a disproportionate share of power and wealth.