How to Count General Category Castes, OBCs

WILL OTHER BACKWARD Classes (OBCs) be counted as per the Central or state lists? Should every caste group — even those in the general category — be counted separately?

- RITIKA CHOPRA & NIKHILA HENRY

These are the key questions before the government as it moves to operationalise its decision to include caste in the next Census, former officers involved with the Census exercise said. The final decisions on these challenges, they add, will be "political calls".

Unlike the SCs and STs, who are enumerated based on official lists notified under constitutional orders of 1950, there is no unified or single list for OBCs. The SC or ST lists, which currently include 1,170 SC castes and 890 ST communities, are periodically updated through parliamentary amendments.

In the case of the OBCs, two separate lists are maintained. The National Commission for Backward Classes has a Central list that is used for reservations in Central government jobs and educational institutions. Simultaneously, each state maintains its own OBC list that differs from—and is often more extensive than—the Central list.