{"id":78156,"date":"2021-01-25T11:35:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T06:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=78156"},"modified":"2021-09-08T16:50:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T11:20:41","slug":"socio-economic-and-caste-census-a-need-for-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/socio-economic-and-caste-census-a-need-for-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Socio-Economic and Caste Census: A Need for reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G1U86RM50.1&amp;imageview=0\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">click here<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Syllabus: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">GS 1 &#8211; population and associated issues<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Synopsis: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Socio-Economic and Caste Census is suffering from many issues. All the issues must be removed before the next exercise is conducted.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Introduction\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Census of India is one of the largest exercises which counts and collects demographic and socio-economic information on the Indian population. It has its own history, context, and purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>About the Census<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The census was a colonial exercise practiced since 1881. It has evolved with time. It is used by the government, policymakers, etc. to estimate the Indian population and its access to resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Census Commissioner for India in 1941 had pointed out that the <\/span><b>census is a very powerful tool. But<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it is not a suitable tool for detailed enquiry about the population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later, many scholars also found census as not useful enough for a <\/span><b>detailed and comprehensive understanding of a complex society.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was conducted in 2011. It was the largest exercise of the listing of castes and has the potential of finding inequalities at a broader level.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, there were many concerns associated with it.<\/p>\n<p><b>What are the main apprehensions with regard to the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC)?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>First,<\/strong> This census has the potential to solidify the caste identities of individuals.\u00a0 It won&#8217;t be helpful in eliminating discrimination from society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Second,<\/strong> SECC has not been able to cover the effects of the caste system on social structure from the local, to the regional, and to national scale.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Third,<\/strong> the data captured by the census is considered confidential<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under the census act of 1948. Whereas the personal data captured by SECC is open for use by Government departments. It makes the SECC data prone to use and for misuse by govt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Fourth <\/strong>issue is the time<strong> duration between each census <\/strong>and the <strong>delay in the release of data after it is done. <\/strong>\u00a0It makes the data obsolete and unusable to estimate the present status of issues. <strong>For example,<\/strong> a sizeable amount of data collected under SECC has not been released even a decade later.<\/p>\n<p><b>What can be done?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There should be transparency on the use of existing caste data by the government for granting or withdrawing benefits. Further, the following steps should be taken:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>First, the collected census data should be linked with other databases<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of national sample surveys or the National Family Health Surveys that cover issues such as maternal health. This will help in the utilization of this data for dealing with social issues in a better way.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scholars like Mamta Murthi have suggested linking the data of surveys in the past.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Second,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This linking of data sources that involve the Census should be <\/span><b>inclusive and non-discriminatory.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Third,<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Fourth,<\/b> <b>there should be a closer and continuous engagement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> between officials of the Census and SECC. It is because the Census and the SECC are projects of governance as well as of academic interest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Fifth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there should be an evaluation of the previous exercise before the next SECC is conducted.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way forward<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Concerns regarding methodology, significance, rigidity, spreading, transparency, and privacy need to be taken seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: click here Syllabus: GS 1 &#8211; population and associated issues Synopsis: \u00a0Socio-Economic and Caste Census is suffering from many issues. All the issues must be removed before the next exercise is conducted. Introduction\u00a0 The Census of India is one of the largest exercises which counts and collects demographic and socio-economic information on the Indian&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/socio-economic-and-caste-census-a-need-for-reforms\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Socio-Economic and Caste Census: A Need for reforms<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":78293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[6617,9586,5465,1297],"class_list":["post-78156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-census","tag-fiscal-federalism","tag-migration","tag-soty_3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Socio-Economic_and_Caste_Census_A_Need_for_reforms.jpg?fit=660%2C450&ssl=1","views":{"total":159,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78156","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}