Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday said a caste census is essential to understand the representation of different communities in public and private sector jobs.
Responding to a question during a press conference, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment said he has been raising the demand for a caste census for many years.
"I had launched this campaign back in 1998," he said, adding that the exercise would provide critical data to assess how much employment each caste group has secured in both the government and private sectors.
He emphasised that caste-wise data is essential to ensure social justice and equal opportunity.
"To collect information about any community, it is important to conduct a caste census. The advantage of this enumeration is that we will know which castes need more empowerment," Athawale said.
The minister argued that only a comprehensive understanding of the socio-economic status of various castes would help the government formulate inclusive policies.
"Empowering every caste group is possible only when we know their real condition," he added.