New Delhi, May 1 -- All castes were enumerated during census exercises carried out in British India between 1881 and 1931, but at the time of the first census of independent India in 1951, the then government decided not to count castes any more except for scheduled castes and tribes. A decade later in 1961, the Central Government asked states to conduct their own surveys and prepare state-specific lists of OBCs if they wished so.
Over six decades later now and after demands from several quarters and various parties, the government has now decided to include caste enumeration in the next nationwide census. The last nationwide caste enumeration took place in 2011 under Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in a bid to gather detailed infor...