Pre-cum-Mains GS Foundation Program for UPSC 2026 | Starting from 14th Nov. 2024 Click Here for more information
Contents
What is the News?
On Caste Based Census, the Ministry of Home Affairs has said that the Government of India has decided not to enumerate caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in Census 2021.
Caste Data Published in the Census:
- Every Census in independent India from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes.
- Before that, every Census until 1931 had data on caste. However, in 1941, caste-based data was collected but not published.
- Hence, in the absence of such a census, there is no proper estimate for the population of OBCs.
- The Mandal Commission estimated the OBC population at 52%. Some other estimates have been based on National Sample Survey data.
About Socio-Economic Caste Census(SECC):
- Socio-Economic Caste Census(SECC) was conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development in rural areas and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in urban areas.
- The SECC data excluding caste data was finalized and published by the two ministries in 2016.
- The raw caste data was handed over to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which formed an Expert Group under former NITI Aayog Vice-Chairperson Arvind Pangaria for classification and categorisation of data. However, the report has not been made public.
About Mandal Commission:
- Mandal Commission or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC) was established in 1979 with a mandate to identify the socially or educationally backward classes of India.
- Headed by: It was headed by B.P. Mandal to consider the question of reservations for people to redress caste discrimination and used eleven social, economic, and educational indicators to determine backwardness.
- In 1980, based on its rationale that OBCs (“Other backward classes”) identified on the basis of caste, economic and social indicators made up 52% of India’s population, the Commission’s report recommended that members of OBC be granted reservations to 27% of jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings.
