RATIONALE FOR THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CASTE CENSUS

Post By Raisa Sherif 
 HS09H028

     Welfare state is the goal of every developing country. Promoting equity, therefore, places itself in the agenda of every government. India had been a laden with stark inequalities over the decades and it still remains a challenge before every policy maker. The government has set in place several affirmative actions and policies based on caste and has drafted programmes that are directly oriented to the rural areas to bridge the glaring differences among its citizens.

     Measuring the success of such government programmes is essential to determine whether they should be continued, altered or withdrawn. Data collection and analysis in itself is a huge challenge in the country, owing to the huge population. But our census has shown success to a great degree in overcoming this hindrance. But Census, as it had been practiced over the years does not include tools to collect all relevant information. It turned a blind eye towards several factors that affect the national socio-political environment and failed to trace the socio economic trajectory that the population of the nation underwent during the last six decades and more.

     While there is wide agreement throughout the nation that it is the duty of the state to eliminate poverty and inequalities, the critics fail to understand the need for adequate data to substantiate the government programmes aimed at the same. Lack of information, information being the most important factor of decision making, reduces the performance of any policy drastically. Due to this timely alterations of policies and interventions elude the government hands. Currently, the government uses the caste data from the 1931 Census to ascertain the coverage of the various positive discrimination programmes. This leads to a situation where the entire government approach towards the different castes is heavily based on unreliable and outdated data. This has led to increasing instances of same castes treated differently under different programmes over the years.

     Sixty five years after independence has seen several efforts from the government to eliminate caste form the Indian society. Yet little progress has been made in this regard. Pretending to ignore its presence is no way to eliminate it. What is required is accepting caste as any other social variable and addressing it to analyse the shifts in the socio-demographic contours of the nation. P.K Misra’s opinion rightly captures the essence of the entire argument for caste census as put forward by the government, ‘76 years of non-enumeration of caste in the Census has done little to eliminate it.’ Madhavi Bhasin also opines, “... caste as a social reality in India draws succour from multiple sources which will remain untouched by either the proposed census or the resultant official policies”. She cites the examples of the matrimonial advertisements, the Indian army still being organized as Jhat, Dogra, Sikh and Rajput Regiments etc to illustrate that caste is all pervasive in the society irrespective of the efforts of the government. Therefore understanding the social hierarchy of caste and the relative strengths and weaknesses of every group is essential in ensuring the distribution of benefits in the economy which are aimed at promoting equality.

     The first official recommendation for a Caste-wise enumeration was put forward by the Kalekkar Commission of 1955, which proposed that caste should be a criterion for assessing backwardness. The Mandal Commission report which was presented in the 1980 required a caste based Census to be undertaken so as to effectively implement its recommendations.

     Present day caste has more of a political role than a socio-cultural role. In the absence of an alternative source to reliable data, the central as well as the states governments were forced to heed the opinion of the different caste leaders as well as consider the statistics given by them in drafting policies. The proposed socio-economic caste census addresses this issue and is the greatest rationale for its implementation. The new Census would bring to light the dominant caste groups that holds the reins of power and aids in eliminating this concentration of power. It would also reveal the factors that lead to the exclusion of the deserving from benefiting from the government programmes.

     The existing system of enumeration is modified in order to meet the challenges posed by the proposed system. The number of enumerators had been increased and the training intensified. The use of electronic handheld device (a tablet PC) to directly enter the data is a drastic technological advancement in the field of enumeration. Earlier data collection methods were characterised by no public verification of the collected data, where as the new system offers options for verification at different stages as well as introduce greater transparency. At the same time, electronic data entry prevents interference as well as tampering with the collected data. Paperless exercise increases efficiency; increased accuracy and there is no possibility of interpolation and falsification of data.[1]

In addition to the above, the new method of enumeration also changes the nature of data that is collected through the entire exercise. For example, over the years the Planning Commission of India had analyzed the census data and had estimated “how much” of poverty is prevalent in the country. The process of identifying the population below poverty line using the thirteen socio economic indicators suffered from several inclusion and exclusion errors. The socio-economic caste census collects information on “who” the people below the poverty line are. This data would be more convenient to be put to use in decision making and identifying the targets of public policies. The new system offers a detailed guide to the enumerators and has included a much needed revamp of the enumeration process which would result in rich data.

     The non-availability of data for public as well as private use was the problem of the earlier system of enumeration. The present system seeks to address this as well. According to the Government Report, the newly collected data would be compatible with AADHAR and NPR. This data would be made available for the different ministries, private and non government organizations and private individuals. This would promote transparency. This availability of data facilitates the research and analysis in the social sphere of caste.

     The SCs, STs and OBCs are recognized by the government of India through its laws and policies. All the modern governments undertake measures to identify and estimate the demographics of the social groups that have been recognized by them. By the sheer virtue of recognizing these social groups, it is mandated that the government of India should maintain an updated database about them.

Advocates of Caste Census and the supporters of the government claim that the policy had been delayed due to political interferences and been long overdue. The criticisms raised in this regard are not trivial. Since the idea of caste is highly subjective and a result of an amalgamation of different socio-economic factors he entire process of enumeration is a major challenge. So are classification, analysis and interpretation of the data. Though the government is sure about the collected data having an impact on the public policy, the exact manner in which how it gets transferred to policy is still problematic. Also caste being a politically charged topic is sure to invite an unconstructive response from all walks of the civil society.

     Modern Democracies are bound to be egalitarian and requiring a citizen to identify himself or herself with his/her caste is a huge blow to this egalitarianism. The question therefore arises, does this system perpetuates the evil that it aims at eradicating. As a result, it has now become the huge responsibility of the government to prove over the coming years that the entire exercise was worth the effort in ensuring equity of access to welfare measures to the deserving as well as attaining the long term goal of eliminating altogether, the caste set up from the country’s socio economic demographics and mindsets.

Works Cited

Choudhury, C. (2011, July). A Debate Over India's First Caste Census. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-05/a-debate-over-india-s-first-caste-census-world-view.html

Deshpande, S., & Sundar, N. (1998). Caste and the Census: Implications for Society and Social Sciences. Economic and Political Weekly.

Ministry of Rural Development. (2011, July 25). Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 in Rural India. Government of India.

Misra, P. K. (June 2007). Backward Caste Census: an Outmoded Idea. Economi and Political Weekly, 2245-2247.

Pinto, A. (1998). Should Caste be Included in the Census. Economic and Political Weekly.

Shah, A. M. (1998). Can the Caste Census be Reliable? Economic and Political Weekly.

Yadav, Y. (2010, May 14). Why Caste Should be Counted In. The Hindu. India.

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[1] Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 in Rural India, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India