We require reliable data on caste to meet our aims of social justice

Source: The post is based on the article “We require reliable data on caste to meet our aims of social justice” published in the Livemint on 21st April 2023.

Syllabus: GS – 2: mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections.

Relevance: About the demand including caste in the census.

News: Recently, many political parties are demanding to include caste in India’s census. 

Does the present form of the census collect any caste-based data?

Yes, the Census of India is enumerating caste-based data and publishes regular detailed tables based on that. These are available for Schedule Castes (SCs) and Schedule Tribes (STs) alone. But not for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and the residual category of ‘Others’.

What is the rationale behind the demands for including caste in the census?

-For the SC and ST social groups, the percentage of seats reserved is proportional to the share of these groups in the country’s population. However, this is not the case for the OBC group. The OBC groups are demanding a proportionate share of the reservation

-At present, Central and State governments have gone to the extent of extending reservations to various communities to fulfil political favouritism. A reliable estimate on caste will remove such political favouritism.

About the previous demands for including caste in the census

-The Mandal Commission requested the home ministry to include caste in the 1981 Census.

-Caste as a category was enumerated as part of a nationwide Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) in 2011-12 to identify beneficiaries for various government programmes. The SECC has since been adopted by most government programmes, including for the identification of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act. As part of the SECC data on caste was collected but was kept apart from other socioeconomic indicators.

-A Supreme Court judgement in 2022 made empirical estimates of different castes conditional for reservation in local bodies.

-The government set up a committee to analyse the data on caste from the SECC under the chairpersonship of Arvind Panagariya. But there has been little progress since then and the data has not been released.

– Karnataka conducted its own caste census in 2017. However, even the results of that census have not been released. Another caste census is currently underway in Bihar.

Why should be done?

Data from an all-India caste enumeration might create pressure from OBC representatives for a larger chunk of reservations as pressure groups arise from within this vast social group.

The government must use the existing SECC data on caste. Since caste does not change over the years, India’s SECC data is still reliable. This will allow a better understanding of the socio-economic status of various castes.