Telangana Minister urges PM to include separate OBC/SEBC category in Census 2027

Backward Classes Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting that the 2027 Census include a separate and clearly identifiable category for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).

In his letter, Mr. Prabhakar argued that the absence of a distinct category could undermine the accuracy and utility of caste enumeration data. He called for standardised caste coding and a scientific methodology to identify backward communities, emphasising that caste identity and OBC/SEBC classification are not always synonymous. The classification, he noted, can differ between the Central and State lists, and the Census methodology must account for such State-specific variations.

The Minister pointed to the experience of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, where spelling differences, local nomenclature, synonyms, sub-castes, and phonetic variations produced a large number of separate caste entries. This created significant difficulties in verification, aggregation, and classification of the data.

To address these issues, Mr. Prabhakar proposed that the Union government prepare a comprehensive State-wise master caste directory and assign unique digital codes to all recognised castes and communities. He also urged the creation of a mechanism to separately identify unlisted, disputed, or locally recognised caste names for further verification.

The Minister suggested that both the caste declared by a respondent and its corresponding administrative classification should be preserved. This, he said, would ensure transparency and traceability of the data collected.

Mr. Prabhakar cited Telangana's Socio-Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) Survey 2024-25 as a successful model for structured data collection. That State-level survey used a systematic approach to identify social groups and castes, which the Minister said could guide the national Census exercise.

The Minister stressed that Census 2027 should produce a usable OBC/SEBC dataset rather than merely compiling raw caste names. Such data, he argued, is essential for formulating policies related to reservation, representation, education, employment, and welfare.