{"id":264268,"date":"2023-10-13T16:56:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=264268"},"modified":"2023-10-13T16:56:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T16:56:57","slug":"the-case-for-caste-census-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-case-for-caste-census-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for caste census in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>This post has been created based on the article \u201cThe case for caste census in India\u201d<\/strong> published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 13th<\/sup> October 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2014 Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

News<\/strong>:\u00a0This article discusses the disparities in the incidence of poverty, as well as education and employment among the various caste-groups. It also analyses the reasons for the demand and opposition to caste census in India, and ascertains its necessity.<\/p>\n

The recent caste survey in Bihar has found that 63% of Bihar\u2019s population<\/strong> belongs to the Extremely<\/strong> Backward Classes (EBC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC)<\/strong> categories.<\/p>\n

What is the relation between caste, religion, poverty and discrimination?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The intersection between class and caste-based deprivation<\/strong> in Indian society is evident.<\/p>\n

1) National Sample Survey (NSS) 2011-12:<\/strong> The average monthly per-capita consumption expenditures<\/strong> of ST, SC and OBC households in rural as well as urban areas were lesser than that of the General category.<\/p>\n

2) National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4\/2015-16):<\/strong> The persistence of inequality<\/strong> across caste categories in India can also be seen in its multidimensional poverty estimates.<\/p>\n

3) Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI):<\/strong> 28% of all Indians were multidimensionally poor in 2015-16, however, 50.6% STs and 33.3% SCs were poor.
\nAlso, poverty among Muslims was at 31% (higher than other religious communities).<\/p>\n

What is the relation between caste and education and employment outcomes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) NSS 75th round (2017-18):<\/strong> General category has a much higher proportion of literates, secondary and high school pass outs, graduates and post-graduates<\/strong> than OBCs, SCs and STs.<\/p>\n

2) PLFS 2021-22: <\/strong>Over 30% of the workforce in the General category had a regular job, while among OBCs and SCs it was around 20% and among STs just over 12%.<\/p>\n

3) Similarly, STs, SCs and OBCs were overrepresented in casual labourers<\/strong>, compared to the general category.<\/p>\n

4) Informal sector<\/strong> is largely populated with STs, SCs and OBCs while the General category has a disproportionately large share of formal employment.<\/p>\n

This indicates that caste-inequality in educational outcomes is reproducing a similar pattern of caste-inequality in skilled, formal employment.<\/p>\n

In this backdrop, the demand for a nationwide caste census has gathered momentum.<\/p>\n

Why is there a demand for a caste census?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1) Wide divergence of the OBC population figures in the various official sample surveys.<\/p>\n

2) Ascertaining the numbers of individual castes within the OBC category has become important due to concerns regarding benefits for OBCs getting concentrated among certain dominant caste groups.<\/p>\n

Why is there opposition to a caste census?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are apprehensions that it might trigger demands for enhancing the 27% reservation quota for OBCs and breaching the 50% limit set by the judiciary in Indra Sawhney case.<\/p>\n

What is the historical backdrop of caste surveys?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Caste wise enumeration of the population was introduced under the British colonial administration in 1881 and continued till the 1931 census.<\/p>\n

Independent India\u2019s governments abandoned full caste enumeration on the apprehension that it would strengthen caste divisions and perpetuate the caste system.<\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Justice Rohini Commission<\/strong>, which was constituted in 2017 by the Modi government to examine the sub-categorisation of OBCs in the Central list, submitted its report in August 2023.<\/p>\n

A nationwide socio-economic caste census is necessary to evolve scientific criteria for such sub-categorisation.<\/p>\n

This would also be necessary for all States, which have their own State-level OBC lists, given the wide variety in caste composition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post has been created based on the article \u201cThe case for caste census in India\u201d published in The Hindu on 13th October 2023. UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 Social Justice \u2014 Mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections. News:\u00a0This article discusses the disparities in… Continue reading The case for caste census in India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[212,232,10498],"class_list":["post-264268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-social-justice","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1698385677,"cached_date":1698472896},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}