Save your citizenship through Census 2011

Says Federation of Minorities’ NGOs in its appeal to the Muslims

Mumbai: While addressing a press conference, yesterday at Marathi Patrakar Sang (Mumbai Press Club), the leaders of the Federation of Minorities NGOs (FMN) – Maul. Mahmood Daryabadi, Dr. Azimuddin, Maul. Burhanuddin Qasmi, Salim Alware, Dr. SK Abdullah and Iqbal Memon, have urged all NGO activists, especially those from Muslim NGOs to fully volunteer their skill and time to the ongoing census 2011 in India.

The leaders have requested all members of the community to note the followings and take part in the census process.

They said, an enrolment in the census enables an individual to be 'the citizens' of the country. The census 2011 will help decide numbers of BPL people in 2013. Moreover, this census is collecting Photos of above 15 age-group along with Biometric Identity and the databank collected by the census will be used by the Unified Identity Authority of India (UIDAI). If any once fails to get into the data-Bank he will be out of UIDAI which is an indirect proof of 'Citizenship' for every individual. Furthermore, all the future 'Planning' and Budget allocations against particular, community or caste will be based on this databank

The FMN is launching a statewide awareness campaign in Maharashtra from today itself through its 100 plus member NGOs to educate common people to ensure their complete and correct entries during the census, the leaders said in the press conference. Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi said that the census authority of India should train its enumerators through effective workshops to minimize common mistakes like wrong spellings of Muslim names and filling in wrong religion, language or caste etc.

The Federation of Muslims NGOs believes that for effective planning precise information about religious, social and economic conditions is essential. Our nation can effectively plan political, educational, social and economic development on the basis of correct information. Therefore, social activists must ensure detail entries of the data correctly.

Every educated Indian must cooperate in this massive task so that we may know ourselves correctly. Precise data is more important for minorities and marginalized sections. Caste based census was done last time in 1931. That is why there is a growing need for it now to reassure all statistics. If we update caste figures greater justice can be provided for marginalised people.

Every citizen should be alert about information which is being recorded. He/she must check and verify the forms which are being filled by enumerators. No room should be given to dishonest manipulators who are doing a disservice to nation and truth by incorrect data entry. The Maharashtra Federation of Minorities NGOs requests all not for profit activists, through this press conference to offer their services during 1st May to 15th June for 2011 census in Maharashtra.

OBC census: SC seeks govt response

NEW DELHI: A PIL in the Supreme Court on Monday made a strong pitch for utilising the elaborate ‘Census 2011’ mechanism to end the 80 long years of speculation about the exact population of other backward classes (OBC), which had been the basis for 27% reservation in jobs and educational institutions.

PIL petitioner Kishore Govind Kanhere through counsel D K Garg said that while the Mandal Commission estimated that OBCs constituted 52% of the total population, the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in its 61st round of survey (2004-05) had pegged it at 41% in its report on employment and unemployment situation amongst various social groups in India.

Arguing before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan, the counsel said if the census took steps to identify the numbers of SCs and STs, why should the OBCs be left out of the purview of exact enumeration of their numbers.

When the Bench looked up to Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam for a response, the law officer immediately assured the court that there was no need for the Bench to issue notice to the Centre and that he would get the response of the government on this issue within three weeks. The PIL said that the last caste-based census was held in the year 1931, wherein the OBCs were covered and complained that despite a large number of representations to the home ministry for inclusion of OBCs in Census 2011, there had been no positive response.

It said the social justice and empowerment ministry had conceded that it had been fixing targets under various scheme for upliftment of OBC population without having the data about their numbers. Even this ministry had written to the census authorities for finding out the exact number of OBC population, but the request had been turned down, the petitioner said.

The PIL referred to the law relating to 27% reservation for OBCs in central educational institutions and the subsequent challenge to its constitutional validity in the Supreme Court.

“In order to provide reservations for backward classes among citizens in public educational institutions and for providing equal opportunity in public employment, it is necessary that census should cover OBCs as envisaged under Article 340 of the Constitution,” the petitioner said.

No decision on I-cards in rest of country: Maken

New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI)

Government today said it was yet to take a decision on issuing identity cards to usual residents in the rest of the country.

Based on the experience of the pilot project on Multi- purpose National Identity Card, the government has proposed to create a National Population Register (NPR) in the country along with 2011 census, Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

For the NPR, details on specific characteristics of each individual shall be collected along with photographs and finger biometrics of all those who are 18 years of age and above, he said.

"The scheme for coastal areas envisages identity cards to be given to all the usual residents who are 18 years of age and above," Maken said.

census report on MSME sector soon

New Delhi, July 31 (PTI) A census report on the micro, small and medium enterprises in the country, identifying strengths and weaknesses of the sector, will be released soon, a senior government official said today.

"We have conducted a census (for MSMEs) and we are expecting the results very soon," MSME Secretary Dinesh Rai said at function organised by AIMA here.

The sector employs about 420 lakh people and contributes around 40 per cent to both the country's industrial output exports.

The report would also provide information on production, raw material, employment, exports, assets, plant and machinery, products and services, net worth, loan taken by enterprises and outstanding debt, besides assessing the sick units under each category.

Rai said the report would be of a great help to the government in chalking out policies for the sector, which has taken a hit due to the ongoing global economic crisis.

Forced Conversions to Hinduism

Forced Conversions to Hinduism

-Mahavir Sanglikar

Hinduism is being forced on the followers of Non-Vedic religions like Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. The people forcing it do not tell you to go to Hindu temples or perform rituals, but they just change your religious identity. They write your religion as Hindu wherever possible.

All this starts right from the admission of the pregnant woman to the maternity home. When the registration process goes on, the clerk writes her religion as Hindu, without asking her or her relatives accompanying her. For these clerks, if the woman is not a Muslim or Christian, then she is a Hindu. After the birth of the child, the doctor issues a birth certificate mentioning the child’s religion as a Hindu. For the parents, the religion is not important at that time as they are in heaven. They do not take pain even for reading it. But thereafter, whenever they see the birth certificate, they find that their child is converted to Hinduism.

Same thing happens in the school while the admission of the child. The parents do not know that here also their child is growing as a Hindu. They realize it only when the student gets a ‘School Leaving Certificate’ from the school. It mentions the religion of the student as Hindu-Sikh or Hindu-Punjabi in case of Sikhs, Hindu-Jain in case of Jains and Hindu-Buddhist in case of Buddhists. Sometimes it mentions just ‘Hindu’. So the School Leaving Certificate is actually Certificate of Religious Conversion to Hinduism.

The most stupid thing in these School Leaving Certificates is that there is no standardized format for it. One school mentions ‘Religion and caste’, other mentions ‘Race and religion’, another mentions ‘Race and caste’. Who knows about race? But many schools have a ‘Race’ column on the leaving certificate. It is there because it was there while British rule. Change is not acceptable.

Now let us speak about the census. On every tenth year, the Census Commission of India counts the people of India. The Census form mentions 7 religions namely Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jain, Buddhist and Parsi. The followers of other religions are counted under ‘Other’ column. But while census, the data collectors do the same thing what the clerks in hospitals do. They do not ask religion at all. For them all those are Hindus if their name is not a Muslim or Christian name. This happens not just because of lack of knowledge. It is being done systematically by the Hindutwa minded people working as Census Data Collectors.

The population of Hindus in India is about 79%. It is because of the forced Hinduism. We can not know the actual population of Jains, Buddists, Sikhs in India. We can not know the actual population of Adivasis and Nomadic tribes, who are not Hindus but they are counted as Hindus.

Mahavir Sanglikar is a scholar of socio-religious history, blogger and a freelance writer. You can meet him at:
www.censusindianews.blogspot.com

NGOs work to include nomadic tribes in 2011 census

Sarang Dastane

PUNE: Despite being Indian citizens by birth, nomadic and denotified communities in the country do not have any constitutional rights. But all this may change with the 2011 population census as a city-based NGO is trying to spread awareness among tribe members of the benefits of joining the "mainstream".

A large section of these communities has remained out of census list for last 60 years as they are not registered as primary residents. However, if all goes as planned, the nomadic and denotified communities of the state may enrol their names in the population census after the 1931 census.
City-based NGO ECONET took a step ahead in this regard on Saturday when it conducted a workshop for representatives of nomadic and denotified communities. The workshop was organised to guide these communities towards making a conscious and well-informed decision and make them aware of the census procedures.

The workshop was organised jointly by the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics and ECONET.

"Representatives from as many as 12 districts of the state participated in the workshop and will now educate the members of their respective communities. We hope that such workshops will help these communities become a part of the mainstream and enable them to enjoy their constitutional rights," said Krishna Srinivasan of ECONET.

Elaborating on the need for the members of these communities to enrol themselves as primary residents, Krishna said, "Nomadic and denotified communities have been facing peculiar problems because they are not a part of the census and hence have no identity cards or citizenship rights. They have no ration cards, voters' identity cards and caste certificates. Also, the NT-DNT communities are not included in our constitutional schedules. Therefore, we, and various other NGOs and forums, are working towards ensuring that all these communities enrol for the 2011 census." He added that the participating community members have been briefed to give proper information about their mother tongue at the time of census. "This will help in identifying areas with nomadic and denotified tribes," he said.

"The last community-wise census of these tribes was done in 1931, and since then only projections have been used to arrive at an estimate of their population. There are 42-44 different nomadic tribes in Maharashtra, with a lot of diversity even within the community. These communities constitute 9 to 12 per cent of the state's population," added Krishna.
An official from the census department said, "We request people to remain present at their houses during the census time period. It will be difficult for the officials to register people, if they remain absent from their homes."

The word Nomadic Tribes refers to the people, who were forced to live a wandering life by the Indian Caste System. The Nomadic and Denotified Tribes constitutes of about 60 million in India, out of which about five million lives in Maharashtra. There are 313 Nomadic Tribes and 198 Denotified Tribes.