New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS): OBC Muslim groups have now pressed for caste based census in the country which has been a major demand of political parties across the board from NDA allies to the UPA.
National Momin Conference which is a Muslim OBC body, on Wednesday demanded from the Prime Minister that if it is not done now, the OBC community will have to wait for another ten years.
Shakiluzzaman Ansari, president of the body said, "the Prime Minister himself calls that he is from the OBC community and he knows the problems of the community as well. We hope that Prime Minister will accept the demand of the community."
Ansari who was the member of National Backward Commission, said, "The country should know what is the population of the OBC and what is their social status so that welfare schemes could be diverted towards that particular community."
The National Momin Conference has passed a resolution on the issue and will be writing to Prime Minister. Not only this, another body, the All-India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, which has been carrying out a campaign for reservation to the backward Muslim communities, has demanded that a caste based census of the minority community also be conducted.
A meeting of 17 Muslim organisations was recently held to chalk out further action plan.
Mahaz President Ali Anwar Ansari has said the caste census should not be restricted to the Hindu community but should be extended to the minority community as well, since Muslims also follow the caste system.
On August 23, BJP ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar along with a 10-member all-party delegation from the state, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for a caste-based census.
In 2011, Socio Economic and Caste Census conducted by the Registrar General of India had come out with 46,73,034 categories of caste, sub-caste, but in July 2015, the Government of India stated that errors were found and some of them have been rectified since then.
The first caste census was conducted in India in 1881 after Britishers took over and the last census based on caste was carried out in 1931.