Dr Ved Pratap Vaidik Chairman, Council for Indian Foreign Policy and national convenor of Sabal Bharat, the initiator of Meri Jaati Hindustani Movement

Caste counting is a disaster. I condemn the decision of the Cabinet to conduct a separate census to enumerate caste in 2011. This will be the worst kind of census ever conducted in the history of India. The government of independent India is surpassing the British in playing the most divisive and pernicious role in destroying national unity. I appeal to the people of India to reject the caste enumeration in totality. If the government is bent upon conducting the caste-based census, the people should either leave the column blank or write Meri Jaati Hindustani. We have been organising public meetings, protest rallies, fasts and demonstrations against the caste enumeration for the past few months. The movement is being supported by eminent artists, jurists and intellectuals.

Amitesh Vashisht Electronics Engineer, Refair Group of Industries

This kind of census will only trigger people's mind to divide the population into sub-sectors based on caste. It will lead to a psychological state of mind where people will have more reasons to fight and create differences. And there will be a higher probability of nepotism in all sectors. If at all a census has to be done, it should be on the basis of religion so that we know what religion has to be focused on for sex-education or for that matter just "education".

This state-wide census should be followed by a community-wide census. It's difficult in our country to judge what sector of our population is doing well just on the basis of number of people in that sector. Since census means "demographic distribution of population", it would do well for the government to re-think about the kind of census to be conducted and focus on the literary level and assets in different areas of the country.

Thereafter, it should categorise the population into communities. This way it will be clear which community requires more attention and lead to equality. Also, the public will know which leader is doing what for his/her respective state. Is the politician just buying votes on the basis of false promises or actually putting the funds he gets from the government to good use? Many squander the money meant for development while the state of affairs in their constituency remains the same. It's difficult to understand how one can focus the resources towards the needy just because they are needy.

Many are creating a false identity representing the needy community and steal the resources. And these so-called need-based people are creations of politicians. It's time for people to work hard to come up to a level where they deserve resources on the basis of merit and not caste. What is required foremost is free basic education for all, as the problem lies in the literacy level. The Yadav troika demanding caste census is only interested in their vote bank. How else can one explain neglect in their areas of jurisdiction? In fact, natives of their states have been migrating to other prosperous areas, thereby causing an imbalance in the resources.

Dimple Bhardwaj, Assistant GM, Corporate Communications, Raheja Developers

Political parties, who have so far based their entire rhetoric around caste, are mainly interested in furthering their vote bank politics. India is a heterogeneous society with a number of castes and caste-based census will create further divisions and provide a platform to politicians to take advantage by way of divisive caste-based politics.

Such divisions lead to racism and discomfort among various sections of the society. It could become a front for caste-specific clustered development and create a situation that is harmful for the overall growth of the country.