It is mandatory for the State Governments to enumerate details of people belonging to Backward Classes and place the same in public domain.
“However, the Central Government has not made public the BC Census-2011 it got prepared even till now,” said former Chairman of National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) Justice Eshwaraiah on Wednesday. He was speaking to media persons on issues related reservations to BCs and others in different spheres.
Unanimous resolution
Though the NCBC suggested to the Centre and passed a unanimous resolution in 2016 seeking the Centre to make public the BC Census, the details were not released so far. Compilation of the data — now known as Socio Economic Caste Cenus-2011 — was not completed till 2015. This database was crucial to create reservations for BCs in political and other sectors, he observed. Justice Eshwaraiah observed that when the NCBC sought the Central authorities to present records of the Caste Census, the latter went on deferring the matter till 2015 maintaining the information collected was being analysed and refined.
He said the Union Government had asked the NCBC to take up categorisation of BCs. “Then we asked the Government to furnish the Caste Census 2011 it had prepared in 2011,” he said. Without that data it was not possible to classify people belonging to BCs, he observed.
“But the Centre didn’t publish the Census. It didn’t give details to the NCBC either,” Justice Eshwaraiah said. He emphasised that Census statistics were important parameters to extend reservation benefits to the BCs in Central institutions. Already, 11 States had compiled database of BCs. Based on those statistics, they were extending reservations to BC communities at local level.
The two Telugu States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have 29% reservations to BCs. Referring to creamy layer in BC reservations, Justice Eshwaraiah said that it should be liberalised and confined to legislators, judges and top Government services.
