The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: The PMK, the Tamil Nadu-based party which is an ally of the ruling BJP, has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to conduct a caste census, a main demand of opposition parties.
PMK founder S. Ramadoss said on Tuesday (September 24) that majority of the political parties in India support the idea of a caste census, reported Deccan Herald.
“There is no problem in conducting the census 2021 as a caste-wise census; it is sufficient to add only one category – caste – to the statistics collected for the regular census. There is no additional cost for this. On the contrary, the social justice benefits to the country and the people of the country due to the collection of caste-wise demographic data are limitless,” said Ramadoss.
The PMK has considerable support among the Vanniyar community in Tamil Nadu. In the past, it has also asked the DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu to conduct a caste census. The DMK has maintained that it is the duty of the Centre and the state has no authority to conduct the exercise.
“Caste-wise population statistics are needed to justify reservation. But we don’t have that. All reservations in India are based on the 1931 census and it is nearly a century old. Caste-wise census is paramount to counter the cases filed against reservation. This has been emphasized by the Supreme Court and the High Courts of various states time and again,” said Ramadoss.