HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the state government to include “No Religion” and “No Caste” columns in the comprehensive household survey set to begin on Wednesday.
Justice Surepalli Nanda was dealing with representations submitted by Md Waheed and DL Krishna Chand seeking the inclusion of such a column in the “Samagra Intinti Kutumba Survey” (comprehensive social, economic, educational, employment, political and caste survey) to begin on November 6.
The petitioners contended that the failure to include such a column would violate their constitutional rights under Articles 14 (equality before law), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), 21 (protection of life and personal liberty), and 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion).
They said that the current structure of the survey, which recognises only traditional religions and castes, is inadequate to account for those who do not wish to identify with any caste or religion.
In response to the petition, the judge directed the state government to amend the survey’s existing framework to ensure that citizens opting for “No Religion” and “No Caste” are recognised.
Create additional columns in survey, govt ordered
Specifically, the court ordered that an additional column be created in the survey to allow such identities to be recorded under Schedule No. 5 (with code No .07) for religion, Schedule No. 6 (with code No. 5) for social classification, and Schedule No. 7 (with code No. E) for caste.
The petitioners had urged the court to direct the government to ensure that individuals who preferred not to be identified on the basis of religion or caste should be allowed to have their identity reflected accurately, and that this data be included in both the manual records and the online system.
The court’s directive comes at a time when there is an increase in the number of people rejecting traditional caste and religious identities.
D Suresh Kumar, counsel for the petitioners, speaking to TNIE, highlighted the importance of accurately documenting this demographic. He said that while the state currently recognises Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains, an increasing number of people are seeking recognition as having “No Caste” and “No Religion.”
“The government must be aware of the actual number of people who identify as ‘No Caste’ and ‘No Religion,’ and the inclusion of this option will ensure that the social and demographic data collected is truly representative of all sections of society,” Suresh Kumar said.