Demand for socio-economic caste survey raised in West Bengal

While Trinamool Congress leadership has maintained silence on the issue, party insiders say a caste survey could play into the significant influence the BJP wields over Other Backward Classes in the State

Social and political rights group hold a demonstration near Ambedkar Statue in Kolkata. | Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI

Political parties and social groups have urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to conduct a socio-economic caste survey in West Bengal, along the lines of the report brought out recently in the neighbouring State of Bihar.

Representatives of different political parties and social groups came together on November 26, Constitution Day, in Kolkata, and among various demands, brought up the issue of a caste census.

“The idea of social justice of the BJP is a flawed one. As far as West Bengal is concerned, Trinamool Congress (TMC) is part of the Opposition INDIA (Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance) alliance. We are demanding that if the Centre is not interested, then the West Bengal government can have a socio-economic caste census on the lines of a similar exercise held in Bihar,” economist and social activist Prasenjit Bose told The Hindu.

Mr. Bose, who is also the convenor of the Joint Forum Against NRC (National Register of Citizens), and actively campaigns against forcible acquisition at the Deocha Pachami coal project in Birbhum, said that leaders from the Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Swaraj India, the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement, and the Jai Bhim Network had come together to raise their voice “against the attack on the Constitution by the BJP government at the Centre”.

Among the leaders who gathered in front of the statue of B. R. Ambedkar at Kolkata’s Red Road were former Congress MLA Sukhbilas Verma, State Congress vice president Abdus Sattar, Partha Ghosh of the CPI(ML) Liberation, Kapil Krishna Thakur of the Communist Party of India (CPI), and Saradindu Biswas of the Jai Bhim Network.

Despite demands being raised in different quarters for a socio-economic caste census, the TMC leadership has maintained silence on it. According to Trinamool insiders, a caste survey can give a handle to the BJP as the party wields significant influence among Other Backward Classes (OBC) in West Bengal. Several elections in the past few years have indicated that minority communities have rallied behind the Trinamool, while sections of OBCs and tribals have voted for the BJP.

Mr. Bose said that tribals in the State were also being deprived of their rights, in particular their land rights, and added that political and social activists had raised the pitch in bringing tribal-dominated areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.