Critically analyse the need for conducting caste based census in Indian society.
Caste based census was first conducted in 1931. The first such census in independent India was conducted during 2011. India is home to thousands of castes with subcastes and the polity is still dominated by caste calculations. SECC (socio economic caste-based census) thus holds a crucial position.
Merits
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- Helpful in Managing Social Equity Programmes:
- India''s social equality programmescannot be a success without the data and a caste census would help fix that.
- Due to the lack of data, there isno proper estimate for the population of OBCs, groups within the OBCs and more.
- TheMandal Commission estimated the OBC population at 5% while some others have pinned the OBC population from 36 to 65%.
- The census would ''besides resolving the needless mysteryabout the size of the OBC population, census enumeration would yield a wealth of demographic information (sex ratio, mortality rate, life expectancy), educational data (male and female literacy, ratio of school-going population, number of graduates) and policy relevant information about economic conditions (house-type, assets, occupation) of the OBCs''.
- Bring a Measure of Objectivity on Reservation:
- A caste-based census could go a long way in bringing a measure of objectivityto the debate on reservations.
- According to the Rohini Commission, which was formed to look into equitable redistribution of the 27% quota for OBCs, noted that there are around 2,633 castes covered under the OBC reservation.
- However, the Centre’s reservation policy from 1992 doesn’t take into account that there exists within the OBCs, a separate category of Extremely Backward Castes, who are much more marginalised.
Demerits
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- Repercussions of a Caste Census:
- Caste has an emotive element and thus there exist the political and social repercussionsof a caste census.
- There have been concerns that counting caste may help solidify or harden identities.
- Due to these repercussions, nearly a decade after the SECC 2011, a sizable amount of its data remains unreleased or released only in parts.
- Caste Is Context-specific:
- Caste has never been a proxy for class or deprivation in India, it constitutes a distinct kind of embedded discrimination that often transcends class. For example:
- People with Dalit last names are less likely to be called for job interviews even when their qualifications are better than that of an upper-caste candidate.
- They are also less likely to be accepted as tenants by landlords. Thus, difficult to measure.
- Marriage to a well- educated, well-off Dalit man still sparks violent reprisals among the families of upper-caste women every day across the country.
Looking ahead
- A caste census may not sit well with the goal of a casteless society, but it may serve as a means of addressing inequities in society.
- Caste data will enable independent research not only into the question of who does and does not need affirmative actionbut also into the effectiveness of this measure.
- Impartial data and subsequent research might save the bona fide attempts of the uplift of the most backward classes from the shadow of caste and class politics and be informative to people on both sides of the spectrum – for and against reservation.
- It is not reservation that creates the current divide in our societybut the misuse or the perceived misuse of reservation.
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