PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Tuesday urged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to conduct Census 2021 as a caste-wise enumeration as it would be ‘sufficient to add only one category, caste, to the statistics collected for the regular census’.

In letter to the Prime Minister, he said the PMK has been demanding a caste-wise census for several decades; both inside and outside the parliament.

“There are constant threats to the reservation at the national and state levels. Cases have been filed against reservation in the Supreme Court and various State high courts. Caste-wise population statistics are needed to justify reservation. But we don’t have the numbers. All reservations in India are based on the 1931 census that is nearly a century-old. Caste-wise census is paramount to counter the cases filed against reservation,” the PMK leader said.

Dr. Ramadoss further said, “Only if caste-wise census is not properly conducted and proportionality between seat reservation and caste-wise population is not proved, the quantum of reservation may be reduced in many States, including Tamil Nadu.”

“If that happens, it will be a huge setback to social justice in India,” he said.

Dr. Ramadoss said that the Central government should come forward to conduct a caste-wise census, which has not been conducted for the last 93 years, since most of India’s national and state parties support it.