Latest news with #Socio-EconomicCasteCensus
Time of India
7 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Centre issues Census notification, to be held in two phases
New Delhi: The Registrar General of India (RGI) on Monday issued a notification for conducting India's 16th census with caste enumeration in 2027. Top sources have indicated that the primary focus of the exercise will be on capturing caste, rather than class. Each person may have to mention his/her religion and caste, they added. Sources suggested there is no unified single list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as it varies from state to state as one caste may be under OBC category in one state and in the general category in another. "And there are two separate lists of OBCs maintained -- one by the Centre and another by the state," a top official added. The census would include a variety of questions to find out economic disparity so that this census could be used for selecting beneficiaries for various centrally-sponsored welfare schemes and may replace the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, according to multiple people involved in the exercise. There are also indications that preparation of a detailed questionnaire could start as early as next month. According to the RGI notification, the census will be carried out with a reference date of October 1, 2026 in snow-bound areas like Ladakh and March 1, 2027 in the rest of the country. "The reference date for the said census shall be 00.00 hours of March 1, 2027, except for the Union territory of Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand," it said. The massive exercise will be carried out by around 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh census functionaries armed with digital devices. A provision for self-enumeration would also be made available. The census will be conducted in two phases. In phase one - Houselisting Operation - the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected. In the second phase - Population Enumeration - the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected. Stringent data security measures would be followed to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage, according to the home ministry officials.
New Indian Express
11-06-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Lingayats, Vokkaligas welcome fresh caste survey decision
BENGALURU: The two most influential communities of Karnataka — Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaligas — who had joined forces to resist the controversial Kantharaj Commission report, and had opposed it for nearly a decade, have welcomed the Congress government's move to order a fresh caste survey. They hailed the Congress leadership's decision to scrap the old report and order a fresh survey, which could reshape Karnataka's caste-ridden politics. The All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha declared, 'We have no issue with reservation itself, but only demand a proper scientific study.' The Mahasabha is planning a meeting on June 12 or 13 to chart their next steps, secretary Renuka Prasanna confirmed. Vokkaliga leaders said it was GN Srikantaiah, the Rajya Vokkaligara Meesalathi Samiti and others who were at the forefront of the struggle. Vokkaligara Kriya Samithi president KG Kumar, who had resisted the Socio-Economic Caste Census since 2016, hailed the Congress move as 'justice at last' for his community. 'It's a 10-year fight, and today, we are celebrating a hard-won victory,' declared Kumar. 'We demanded a new survey that's scientific and thorough, and today, the CM, DCM and Congress ministers have delivered. We will gather next Wednesday to thank all our resource persons who stood by us. As our great poet Kuvempu said: 'Sarvarigu Samapalu', and that's all we wanted.' Kumar showered praise on the army of community champions who had rallied in protest. Vokkaliga leaders reminisced about the first-ever joint meeting with the Veerashaiva Mahasabha back in 2016, followed by another during Basavaraj Bommai's tenure in 2022, and another in 2024. 'We'd held dozens of meetings across the state, from Kolar to Kodagu to Mysuru to Hassan, and in 17 districts where Vokkaligas are a force to reckon with.' 'Both communities had maintained from the beginning that the report was riddled with errors and they had comprehensively highlighted the mistakes.''
Indian Express
05-06-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Why Ayushman Bharat payments are stalled in Jharkhand
The promise of Ayushman Bharat seems to be unravelling in Jharkhand. The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), meant to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to low-income families, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ranchi in 2018. More than 23 lakh people in Jharkhand have availed treatment under the scheme since then. But pending payments to the tune of Rs 190 crore and mounting are jeopardising the future of Ayushman Bharat in Jharkhand. Some 212 hospitals have not received payments since last June, and the rest 538 hospitals empanelled under the scheme await reimbursement since February this year. Hospitals in the districts of Hazaribagh, Koderma, Palamu, and Deoghar have already pulled out of the scheme citing the hold up in payments. And this may just be the beginning. An ambitious scheme AB PM-JAY is the largest health insurance scheme in the world. It provides a cover of Rs 5 lakhs per family per year to eligible beneficiaries for hospitalisation expenses in both government and empanelled private hospitals. At the moment, some 750 hospitals in Jharkhand are registered under the scheme, according to the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) and the Indian Medical Association (IMA). Current eligibility extends to the bottom 40% households, which is calculated based on deprivation and occupational data from the Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011. The Prime Minister last year announced that coverage will soon be extended to all citizens aged 70 years and above. The cost of implementation of AB PM-JAY is shared between the Central and State Governments in a 60:40 ratio. According to Jharkhand officials, around 28 lakh families (some 1.5 crore people) are enrolled under AB PM-JAY in Jharkhand, with another 38 lakh families (roughly 2 crore people) covered through the state-run Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana, for which the state bears the full cost. The way these schemes work is that beneficiaries are issued insurance cards, using which they can avail healthcare services in empanelled hospitals. These hospitals are then reimbursed on actuals by the government from the funds allocated under the scheme. Officials have confirmed to The Indian Express that there is no shortage of funds under the AB PM-JAY scheme, with Rs 2,284 crore allocated to the hospitals over the last 7 years. The problem is that beginning last year, the disbursement of these funds to hospitals has stalled. This is due to two main reasons. IRREGULARITIES & ED CASES: Last year, the National Anti Fraud Unit (NAFU), using AI, flagged 212 hospitals — 180 private and 32 government — for alleged irregularities in the implementation of Ayushman Bharat. These hospitals were subsequently placed 'on hold', which means that the further disbursement of funds to them was halted until the Enforcement Directorate (ED) completes its investigation. In April 2025, the ED conducted raids at 21 locations across Jharkhand, including prominent hospitals in Ranchi localities like Ashok Nagar, PP Compound, and Lalpur. These raids were linked to a CAG audit, which flagged alleged fraud, including the existence of ghost beneficiaries. The ED investigation is ongoing. Meanwhile, funds to the other 538 hospitals empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat scheme in Jharkhand, have also been stopped since earlier this year. This has been at the heart of the growing frustration in the state with the scheme. 'The ED is investigating 212 hospitals, till then the remaining hospitals also have to suffer,' said Dr Sayeed Ahmad Ansari, president of the AHPI, Jharkhand. Ansari and others have questioned why the hospitals not flagged by NAFU have also had their funding stopped. On Tuesday (June 3), Jharkhand Health Minister Irfan Ansari chaired a meeting with representatives of at least 200 hospitals and other senior officials. After the meeting he announced that the process to release funds to hospitals not under the ED scanner will be started at the earliest. A NEW GLITCHY PORTAL: Dr Anant Sinha, senior surgeon and president of the Jharkhand chapter of the IMA-affiliated Hospital Board blamed the stalling of payments on the introduction of a new web portal earlier this year. 'We were told the things would be streamlined by March… We are still waiting,' he said. Sinha is talking about HEM 2.0 which replaced the older Health Entitlement Management portal, a digital platform used for identifying, verifying, and managing beneficiaries under health schemes like AB PM-JAY. Doctors and officials claim that payments are held up at multiple stages, mostly because of procedural changes and technical shifts in the new web portal. Much of the current logjam is attributed to the launch of HEM 2.0, and the increased insurance cap which accompanied its introduction in February. (The Jharkhand government increased the insurance coverage from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh per family under the Mukhyamantri Abua Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the state's co-branded version of AB PM-JAY, which has also expanded coverage to 38 lakh families in Jharkhand, including all ration card holders in the state). Critics say HEM 2.0 lacks essential filters which has led to backlogs and missing data. As per the officials, another problem is that the payment follows FIFO (First In, First Out) mode where bills are cleared in the order they were approved, not the order in which they are filed. This rigid flow has further slowed claim settlements. A political slugfest Dr Sinha said that non-payment of Ayushman Bharat dues has meant that he has been unable to pay his staff since March. He added that if the payments did not come in, he would stop taking Ayushman Bharat card holders as patients. 'The real loss is to the government and the public,' Sinha warned. AHPI and IMA have claimed that 60 of the 212 NAFU-flagged hospitals have shut down under financial duress. More closures may be on the way if the situation is not sorted out soon. This has made Ayushman Bharat a growing political issue in Jharkhand as well. Babulal Marandi, the state chief of the BJP and the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, accused Hemant Soren's government of failing to implement the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the state. 'Ayushman Bharat, launched by PM Modi from Jharkhand, is now barely functional here,' Marandi said. He claimed that over 500 hospitals have not been paid since February 25, and more than 200 haven't received dues for the past 10 months. 'Hospitals are shutting Ayushman services. Patients are being left in the lurch,' he said. Health Minister Ansari, while countering the former CM's allegations, said that until the ongoing investigation is completed, no hospital will be paid. Ansari claimed that several hospitals linked to BJP leaders are under scrutiny. 'Let me be clear — those misusing the Ayushman scheme for corruption will not be spared,' he said. Shubham Tigga hails from Chhattisgarh and studied journalism at the Asian College of Journalism. He previously reported in Chhattisgarh on Indigenous issues and is deeply interested in covering socio-political, human rights, and environmental issues in mainland and NE India. Presently based in Pune, he reports on civil aviation, other transport sectors, urban mobility, the gig economy, commercial matters, and workers' unions. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn ... Read More
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Business Standard
04-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Census 2027 to start from October next yr; to be conducted in two phases
The Centre on Wednesday said that Census-2027 with caste enumeration would be undertaken in two phases across the country, from October 1, 2026 in snow-bound and hilly areas like Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and from March 1, 2027 in the rest of the country. The reference date of people's headcount would be March 1, 2027, midnight for the entire country. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) statement on conducting Census 2027, which will also be the first digital Census, has come a little over a month after the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), on April 30, approved caste enumeration in the forthcoming population census. Caste data was enumerated the last time as part of the 1931 Census, and was collected as part of the Socio-Economic Caste Census in 2011 but the data was not released because of infirmities. The last Census was held 16 years ago in 2011. The 2021 Census was initially delayed because of the outbreak of Covid-19. In 2023, the UN Population Fund had said India was likely to have almost three million more people than China by the middle of that year. The Census will also have a bearing on the delimitation of the Lok Sabha seats and one-third reservation for women in directly elected legislatures. However, it is not clear whether the Census data will be available by the time the next Lok Sabha polls are announced. The provisional data for the 2011 Census was released on March 31, 2011, 25 days after its population enumeration phase ended, while the final data was released two years later on April 30, 2013. Some of the southern states have demanded a freeze on the number of Lok Sabha seats, based on the 1971 Census, for another 25 years. The notification for the intent of conducting the population Census with these reference dates would be published in the official gazette "tentatively' on June 16, 2025 as per provision of Section 3 of Census Act 1948, it said. Officials said the second and final phase of the census would begin in February 2027 and conclude on March 1, 2027 (reference date). On December 24, 2019, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved conducting Census 2021 at a cost of ₹8,754.23 crore and updating of the National Population Register (NPR) at a cost of ₹3,941.35 crore. It was, however, unclear whether Census 2027 would include updating of the NPR. The entire 2021 Census exercise was estimated to cost the government over ₹13,000 crore. The Budget for 2025-26 allocated ₹574.80 crore for Census surveys and statistics/the Registrar General of India (RGI). In a post on X, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said, "There is really no reason to delay the Census that was due in 2021, for another 23 months. The Modi Government is capable only of generating headlines, not meeting deadlines." According to the government statement on December 24, 2019, the 2021 Census was to comprise 'House listing and Housing Census from April to September, 2020, and Population Enumeration from February 9 to February 28, 2021'. It said that the NPR would also be updated along with House listing and Housing Census except in Assam. As many as 3 million field functionaries were to conduct the exercise, up from 2.8 million in 2011. It had envisaged use of a mobile app for data collection and the central portal for monitoring purpose, and to ensure early release of Census data with improved quality. It had said that 2.4 crore man-days employment would be generated during the collection of the data. The Census process involves visiting each and every household and canvassing separate questionnaire for House listing and Housing Census & Population Enumeration. The enumerators are generally government teachers and appointed by the state governments. A government functionary said the budget was a minor issue and could be sorted out. According to Article 246 of the Constitution, Census was a subject listed at 69 in the Union List in the Seventh Schedule. While some states had conducted surveys to enumerate castes, these surveys had varied in transparency and intent, with some conducted purely from a "political angle, creating doubts in society", the government had said on April 30. The Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990 provide the legal framework for conduct of Census.
News18
29-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
Acceptance Of Caste Census Not Necessarily A Defeat Of BJP's Hindutva Agenda
Last Updated: Hindutva needs the support of the OBCs, including the marginalised castes within the group, and the government realises that The Narendra Modi-led NDA government has finally agreed to conduct the caste census. This will be the first such exercise in independent India as the last caste census was done in 1931 when the country was a colony of the British. Though the previous Congress-led UPA government tried to count caste in its Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) in the last census of 2011, the data on caste population was never published as the UPA lost power in 2014 to the BJP-led NDA whose government, citing anomalies, withheld the data on caste population. While the populations of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) were counted in the past censuses, the new caste census will count the populations of Other Backward Castes (OBCs) and the general castes (so-called upper castes). OBCs are the biggest caste bloc, which is a collection of many different castes and sub-castes. The OBCs, who are given 27 per cent reservation in Union government jobs and central educational institutions, believe that they are denied their proper share as their population is much higher than the reservation quota given to them. A caste census will give the population of the OBCs as well details of the many castes and sub-castes within the OBC bloc. It is this reason that the OBCs have been vocal supporters of the caste census. Now that BJP has agreed for caste census, after being initially reluctant to the idea, the opposition INDIA bloc has claimed credit for this. Additionally, there has been commentary to conclude this as the victory of social justice over BJP's Hindutva agenda. While it can't be denied that the BJP's central leadership had to agree with the caste census after witnessing INDIA bloc's pitch getting traction on the ground, particularly in the most politically significant state of Uttar Pradesh, the commentary that BJP's Hindutva agenda has been overpowered by the agenda of social justice, advocated by the socialist, Bahujan parties and now by Congress also, is based on simplistic arguments. The BJP came to power in 2014 by securing a majority of its own for the first time and was able to repeat this feat, with a bigger mandate, in 2019. One of the main factors behind these achievements was, undoubtedly, the agenda of Hindutva. While Hindutva helped the saffron party, if one watched closely, one will realise that these victories also had the caste factor, which was shrewdly exploited while being kept under the Hindutva carpet. In 2014, while the BJP projected its then prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, an OBC, as a Hindutva face, he was also projected as a representative of the OBCs. This was done after getting support from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BJP's ideological parent, and its associated fronts on the ground. To be fair, this strategy to weave caste equations within the Hindutva umbrella by the saffron party and the Sangh Parivar dates back to the 1990s when then party's general secretary KN Govindacharya first implemented social engineering—mixing Hindutva (Kamandal) with caste politics (Mandal). This Kamandal-Mandal strategy brought OBC leaders like Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar to prominence in the saffron party. This strategy helped the saffron party to come to power for the first time in Uttar Pradesh in 1993 and Kalyan Singh became the chief minister. However, the strategy later failed to move forward with the sidelining of OBC faces like Kalyan and Uma Bharti, who led the party to a gigantic victory in Madhya Pradesh in the 2003 elections, within the party with Govindacharya himself being sidelined in the early 2000s by the saffron party then led by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-Lal Krishna Advani duo. After facing back-to-back electoral setbacks in 2004 and 2009, the saffron party returned to the formula of social engineering and this helped it return to power in 2014 and then in 2019 and 2024. The party particularly targeted the non-Yadav OBCs, which otherwise aren't politically dominant, unlike the Yadavs. But the reduced mandate in 2024 elections once again served as a reality check to the BJP regarding its social engineering project. It was because the OBCs, who started to rally towards the saffron party from 2014, felt they weren't given the proper representation when it came to power sharing. These were legitimate concerns. Despite OBCs being the dominant group in BJP's tally in the 17th Lok Sabha, they lagged behind the 'upper castes" in Modi 2.0, even after increasing OBC representation after reshuffling of council of ministers in 2021. This was reflected at the state level too. Take the example of Uttar Pradesh, where upper castes are over-represented in the BJP's power structure in terms of legislators and ministers. It was only after the setback in 2024 that the BJP made more ministers from the OBCs in the third term of the Modi-led government, surpassing the 'upper castes" who had a majority in the first and second terms of the Modi government. This was a significant change, reflecting the efforts of the Sangh Parivar to accept the concerns and aspirations of the OBCs, who remained the largest caste bloc in the country. Later, in the national conclave of the RSS held from August 31 to September 2 in Palakkad last year, the organisation announced its support for the caste census, arguing its importance for various government-sponsored welfare schemes. Before this, it had announced support for the caste census in 2023, when the Opposition started pitching for the idea. No one can deny that caste is a reality. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar are also aware of this bitter truth. Hindutva needs the support of the OBCs, including the marginalised castes within the group. For that, the saffron party needs to accommodate the aspirations of the OBCs—and to do this, it had no other option but to accept the caste census. The announcement of the caste census by the Modi government reflects this thinking. top videos View all As of now, it is futile to draw the exact consequences post-the caste census, which is yet to be conducted, but the conclusion that the caste census is necessarily a defeat of BJP's Hindutva is based on simplistic and hollow arguments. The author is a political commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. First Published: May 29, 2025, 14:37 IST
