Cabinet resolves to incorporate caste counts in the upcoming census.

• Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announces caste enumeration in the next Census exercise.

• The decision comes ahead of the Bihar Assembly election, but the dates for the next decennial Census exercise, last held in 2011, are yet to be notified.

• The 2021 Census has been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The last time India’s entire population was counted by caste was in pre-Independent India in 1931.

• Reservation measures for education and employment have expanded to include Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

• The next Census will be conducted in digital mode for the first time, likely adding an “other” column with a drop-down code directory.

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah aims the decision to promote inclusion and progress for the deprived.