New Delhi,  30 April

In a major decision, the government on Wednesday decided to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census exercise in a "transparent" manner.

Announcing the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the census comes under the purview of the Centre but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys.

Alleging that the states ruled by opposition parties have done caste surveys for political reasons, the minister said it is Modi government's resolve to transparently include caste enumeration in the forthcoming pan-India census exercise.

The census exercise was to commence in April 2020 but got delayed due to the Covid pandemic.