Caste-based census

Recently, The Supreme Court refused to entertain various pleas challenging the State Government’s notification to conduct a Caste-based census in Bihar.
Bihar CM and Deputy Chief Minister welcomed the apex court’s decision and called it in favour of the State government.

About:
- SECC studies the socio-economic status of rural and urban households and allows the ranking of households based on predefined parameters.
- The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was conducted in 2011 for the first time since 1931.
Census components:
- SECC 2011 has three census components conducted by three separate authorities but under the overall coordination of the Department of Rural Development in the Government of India.
  - Census in Rural Areas has been conducted by the Department of Rural Development (DoRD).
  - Census in Urban areas is under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA) administrative jurisdiction.
  - The caste Census is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Objectives:
- To enable households to be ranked based on their Socio-Economic status so that State Governments can prepare a list of families living below the poverty line.
- To make available authentic information that will enable caste-wise population enumeration of the country and the education status of various castes and sections of the population.
Unique Features of SECC 2011:
- It was the first paperless census in India, conducted on handheld electronic devices, in 640 districts.
- It was the first-ever caste-based census since the 1931 census of India.
- Data was collected on manual scavenging and Transgender count in India.

Manage Social Equity:
- India’s social equality programmes cannot be a success without the data, and a caste census would help fix that.
- Due to the lack of data, there is no proper estimate for the population of OBCs, groups within the OBCs and more.
- Census enumeration would yield a wealth of demographic information (sex ratio, mortality rate, life expectancy), educational data (male and female literacy, ratio of school-going population, number of graduates) and policy-relevant information about economic conditions (house type, assets, occupation) of the OBC’s.
Measure the objectivity of Reservation:
- A caste-based census could go a long way in bringing a measure of objectivity to the debate on reservations.
- According to the Rohini Commission, which was formed to look into equitable redistribution of the 27% quota for OBCs, noted that there are around 2,633 castes covered under the OBC reservation.
- However, the Centre’s reservation policy from 1992 doesn’t consider that there exists within the OBCs, a separate category of Extremely Backward Castes, who are much more marginalised.

Harden Identities:
- Caste has an emotive element, and thus there exist the political and social repercussions of a caste census.
- There have been concerns that counting caste may help solidify or harden identities.
- Due to these repercussions, nearly a decade after the SECC 2011, a sizable amount of its data remains unreleased or released only in parts.
Embedded discrimination:
- Caste has never been a proxy for class or deprivation in India; it constitutes a distinct kind of embedded discrimination that often transcends class.
- For example, People with Dalit last names are less likely to be called for job interviews even when their qualifications are better than that of an upper-caste candidate.
- They are also less likely to be accepted as tenants by landlords. Thus, difficult to measure.
- Marriage to a well-educated, well-off Dalit man still sparks violent reprisals among the families of upper-caste women every day across the country.

In democratic Societies, there is nothing to legally stop a Person from the most deprived Class and Caste from reaching the highest Position, but these legal rights also need socioeconomic support from the government as affirmative action.
Governments must take effective affirmative action based on strong data to ensure the socio-economic development of marginalised people living at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Pic Courtesy: Freepik

Content Source: Hindu Bussinessline