May 17, 2010: The ongoing 2011 census must include 'religious minorities' just like the insertion of 'caste' in the format, said a Christian council.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Abraham Mathai, general secretary of the All India Christian Council (aicc), underlined the need for including religious minorities in the census.

"If not included, this will certainly result in minority groups being swallowed up in a situation whereby the central and state government exchequers would not have made budgetary provisions to cater for their social and developmental needs,” Mathai said.

Mathai, who is also the vice president of Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, stressed that it is imperative to have a special column to categorise minority religious groups so it can prevent minority groups being in greater jeopardy at the hands of callous governments.

Adding such a column, he said, would enable enumerators to provide accurate statistics to agencies such as the Planning Commission which then would result in adequate provisions in the respective central and state government budget allocations.

Not providing a special column, says Mathai, is tantamount to denying the existence of religious minorities in a country where religious intolerance is rife and gross violations on the rights of the minorities have been experienced.

The current census began on April 1 and will count an estimated 1.2 billion population. This will be India's 15th census since 1872. Home Minister P Chidambaram has described it as "the biggest exercise since humankind came into existence".

Spread across 35 states and Union Territories, the census would cover 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils, 7,742 towns and more than 600,000 villages.

Interestingly, caste will be included in the present census despite opposition from Hindu nationalist groups. The first census that categorised people's caste was conducted in 1931 when the British ruled India.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) welcomed the insertion of caste in the ongoing census. The move according to CBCI will facilitate identification of the dalit Christians and help them get benefits extended to dalits belonging to other religions.

This, however, was strongly opposed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which said it would strengthen casteist forces.

"There should not be caste based discrimination. There was no caste based census after 1931, why should the government revive it now?" VHP leader Pravin Togadia asked. (by John Malhotra)