Without Census

The ex Congress president Sonia Gandhi in maiden speech in Rajya Sabha yesterday emphasize the need for carrying out the decadal population census immediately this is an imperative for governance, political alignment, social bargaining, and economic planning. She emphasized on the issue of deprivation of food security to entitled citizens because the public distribution system continues to use the 2011 census data at on average growth rate of about two crore people per year. We have about 20 crore new citizens who have not yet been recorded in the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data. The national food security act 2013 was one of the right based progressive legislations brought out by the UPA government. It made possible targeted food security, and identification of multidimensional poverty. The question of caste census is invariably linked to the census and the United oppositions unequivocal support to the caste census has put the government in a predicament while the government had been vociferous about the national population register it has been shying away from the mandatory decadal census the issue of urban spaces is also linked to the census. It is high time that the government announces the census.