Left parties Commissioner over census proforma

Left parties Commissioner over census proforma
SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA

NEW DELHI, FEB 15: Criticising the restrictive census proforma being thrust upon the Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe communities, the Left Parties today demanded that the SC/STs be allowed to specify their own faith and not be forced to declare themselves as Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist.

Urging the Census Commissioner to take immediate corrective measures, the Left Parties said that the dalits and tribal people be allowed to mention their choice of faith while retaining their identity as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for various reasons.

``The anomaly in the proforma which restricts the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes only to three religious communities should be corrected. If they declare themselves as Christians, Muslims or Jains, they stand to lose their SC/ST status and the accompanying benefits,'' the CPI national executive leader, D. Raja said.

Raising the issue, the CPI Central Secretariat said that the ongoing census has certain controversies regarding how to categorise the dalits and the tribal people as far as their religion was concerned.

``If the census continues to be conducted as per the present proforma, the actual number of the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes will never get reflected in the census,'' Raja said.

In its statement, CPI(M) said: ``They have to been given an option to declare themselves as belonging to the religion they follow instead of being restricted to only three religions -- Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism.''

A number of Dalit Christian orgnaisations and Tribal Welfare organisations have already protested against the constrictive proforma being used by the census board.