Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
On Census Enumeration of Scheduled Castes
In the ongoing Census operations, it has been reported that scheduled castes are being listed only amongst three religious categories of Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. This excludes scheduled castes from declaring his or her faith in any other religion or being an agnostic. This will give a distorted profile of the religious faith of scheduled castes. It is imperative that this defect be rectified. The Census enumeration must allow scheduled castes to declare themselves to be of any faith.
The CPI(M) requests the Census Commissioner to take immediate steps in this regard.