The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’s recommendation to the government to include caste as one of the criteria in the 2011 census is ill-advised. Based on a suggestion from the National Backward Classes Commission, the Ministry is believed to have asked for a differential headcount of the Other Backward Classes and reassessment of their condition so that some changes could be incorporated in the OBC list. The Ministry is reportedly of the view that a caste-based census will help government know the exact population of various castes as also their degree of progress. The proposal, however, is devoid of merit because caste-based census will not only re-affirm caste but also perpetuate the caste system. Moreover, this runs counter to our founding fathers’ avowed aim to establish a casteless, progressive and egalitarian society.
Significantly, the Centre has been saying no to accepting the demand for caste-based census for quite some time. It is noteworthy that India’s first Union Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had made it clear that the 1931 census would be the last caste-based census. Later, B.P. Mandal, former MP and author of the Mandal Commission report, had asked former Home Ministers H.M. Patel, Y.B. Chavan and Giani Zail Singh between 1978 and 1980 for such a census. But the Centre rejected the demand on the ground that enumeration of thousands of castes and sub-castes in the country was not only “undesirable” but also “impossible”. Interestingly, the Centre used the same argument when the Supreme Court asked it to update data on the country’s OBC population in the backdrop of the controversy over reservations in 2006. Moreover, it had told the court that it had an “impressive volume of data”, collected scientifically by the National Sample Survey Organisation, the National Family Health Survey, the Mandal Commission and others. Unfortunately, political parties have been using caste for playing vote-bank politics. Caste is so deeply entrenched in Indian society that reservations have consolidated caste divisions and hampered the herald of a casteless society. It is time we looked beyond castes, quotas and vote banks.
Source: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India.
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