- India as a country represents such diversity in everything right from caste, creed, sex, class, age, and religion that it cannot be easy to comprehend how our society functions by maintaining welcome harmony. The caste conundrum surrounding our day-to-day existence is so complex that one must be thoroughly aware of various permutations and combinations to identify which caste is positioned, how, and where. As you are aware, we have scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward castes, most backward castes, minority communities, and economically weaker sections as well. Of course, we are also aware of how reservations and quotas rule the roost at every step of our existence. The demand for more reservations and quotas is on the rise too.
PC: Information Desk
- This being the case, the political class is always on the lookout to consolidate their assiduously built vote banks that are largely based on labyrinthine caste equations. We know that mixing caste and religion with politicking is a deadly combination. Who will make these leaders see the rationale in ensuring equitable availability of opportunities rather than one based on religion/caste? However, the caste survey is a policy process that must be carried out at a definite period as defined in the Act. As reported, responding to a PIL in the Supreme Court on the subject of the Bihar government’s decision to carry out a caste survey in the state, GOI categorically stated that the census process is governed by a central legislation, the Census Act, 1948.
- Therefore, only GOI can conduct a census. That’s right and what’s also right is that a caste census will widen pre-existing fault lines leading to another slice and dice of quotas. Suboptimal economic policies cannot be offset by caste surveys. GOI’s statement on its authority over the census process, however, raises questions about the indefinite delay of Census 2021. It was meant to be the 16th decennial census. Yes, Covid delayed the enumeration in early 2020. Everything’s been normalized since then. However, there’s no indication when the census will be conducted. It’s the first time since the census exercise began in 1871 that there’s been an indefinite delay. This, in turn, has undermined the integrity of the statistical system.
PC: The Indian Express
- Note that the decennial census is the foundation on which the statistical system is based. Thus, it’s always been more than a mere population enumeration. Right from the beginning, the census has quantified the social and economic characteristics of India. For instance, the Census of 1881 listed 480 groups of occupations. The need for data updates at shorter intervals later led to the design of national sample surveys to gather information in the period between two rounds of the census. Moreover, the census is at the heart of an integrated data collection program. It’s been a decade since the last census was carried out and policymaking has been reduced to a shot in the dark. The world’s fastest-growing major economy deserves much better than the present practice.
