What reasons has he cited for being unable to practice? How have those asking for the number reacted?
the story So Far: In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on 23 September, Central government has rejected operating one Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), stating that it was “administratively difficult and cumbersome”, except for a caste census (traditionally carried out for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes). The affidavit was in response to a writ petition by the Maharashtra government, seeking a direction to the central government to collect data on backward class citizens (BCCs) of rural India during the census of 2021. The petition also asked the Center to disclose raw caste data on Other Backward Classes (OBCs) collected during the SECC-2011. Several political parties, and Bihar allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) has urged the Center to To reconsider your decision.
What is the essence of the affidavit of the Centre?
The government’s affidavit covers three different aspects of the issue of caste census, as reflected in the writ petition. It first explains why it cannot make public the caste data collected under SECC-2011. It then argues that the judiciary cannot direct the government to conduct a caste census because not doing so is a “policy decision”, and the judiciary cannot interfere with the government’s policy. And finally, it explains in detail why it is neither practical nor administratively feasible to attempt a caste census.
editorial | Complex Census: On the Caste Census
What is the status of data collected under SECC-2011?
The government has admitted in its affidavit that the SECC-2011 caste data of 130 crore Indians is with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for five years. Due to lapses in the data, it was decided to form an expert committee under the chairmanship of Arvind Panagariya, the then Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog. But since the other members of the committee were not named, the committee never met, and as a result, no action was taken to merge the raw data into publishable findings.
Why won’t the government make the raw data public?
The gaps in the data mainly stem from the fact that no registry of castes was prepared before the 2011 caste census was conducted. This resulted in mistakes by enumerators who wrote the same caste in dozens of different ways. With no coherent way of aggregating or separating similar or similar castes with different spellings, the number of caste categories increased. For example, in Maharashtra, the existing SC, ST and OBC categories, as per government records, are only 494. But in the 2011 caste census, 4,28,677 castes were born. While the state had a population of 10.3 crore, around 1.17 crore (more than 11%) were found to be ‘without caste’. Also, 99% of castes were counted as having less than 100 individuals. While the total number of castes at the national level as per the last caste census of 1931 was 4,147, SECC-2011 showed the presence of 46 lakh different castes. Since the total number cannot be “exponentially higher to such an extent”, the government has stated that this entire data set is flawed and the census is unreliable, making it unusable for reservation and policy purposes. For these reasons, it has also refused to make public the raw caste data of SECC-2011.
Why will the census of castes not be done with the regular census of 2021?
The government has argued, citing several administrative, operational and logistical reasons, that collecting caste data during the 2021 Census – postponed to the next year due to COVID-19 – is inexcusable and that the effort is to make the census exercise itself. can put you in danger. It begins by pointing out the difference in caste categories according to the various lists. While there were 2,479 OBC castes in the central list, there were 3,150 OBC castes as per the list of all states and union territories. If the question related to caste is included, it would return “thousands of castes as people use their clan/gotra, sub-caste and caste names interchangeably”. Since the enumerators are part-timers with 6-7 days of training and are “not an investigator or verifier”, the affidavit said, “it will be difficult to meaningfully tabulate and classify caste returns.”
Secondly, the preparation for the census starts three to four years in advance. As far as the Census is concerned, the questionnaire has already been finalized and field tested. Therefore, it is no longer possible to add additional questions about caste. Third, unlike in the case of SCs and STs, there is no constitutional mandate for the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner of India to provide census data for OBCs and BCCs. And finally, it set aside two Madras High Court orders citing a 2014 Supreme Court judgment directing the Center to conduct a caste census. According to this Supreme Court decision, what information to collect in the census is a policy decision of the government, and while the court may find a certain policy untenable, it was “legally permissible” for the court to allow the government to do so. Tell me what policy it is. should follow.
What are the arguments of those demanding caste census?
Political parties in favor of caste census cite the need for caste-wise data to justify the extension of reservation to different communities. On the other hand, there is also a large body of scholarly work done by sociologists, political scientists and historians, which sidesteps the welfare argument to claim that India’s fundamental mistake in its fight to overcome caste is not the caste census. Was getting it done. According to these scholars, formal blindness to caste in a casteist society is the result of a denial of the web of caste-based privileges that continues to funnel opportunities for people at the top of the caste hierarchy. They point out that when the word ‘caste’ has been linked to ‘lower castes’, scheduled castes or other backward classes, the upper castes appear “casteless”. He argues that in order to abolish caste, it is necessary to first eliminate caste-derived privileges, and to do so, the state must first map the privileges/deprivations of castes and their socio-economic status, which is a Wants caste census. to do.
Does caste census count only OBC or all castes?
The 2011 caste census collected data on all castes, not just OBCs. Although the demands of OBC-dominated political parties generally focus on expanding the socio-economic mapping of the census from SCs and STs to include OBC castes, they want the upper castes to be included in the caste census as well. Go.
what next?
Opposition parties have criticized the government’s stand, with three chief ministers – Bihar’s Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren and Odisha’s Naveen Patnaik – reiterating their support for the caste census. The BJP does not want to be seen as a protest against the caste census. The opposition, especially regional caste-based parties, can therefore be expected to keep reiterating their demands for a caste census, which, in the electoral context, has become inextricably mixed with the question of OBC rights.
In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, the government has argued, citing several administrative, operational and logistical reasons, that it is not possible to collect caste data during the 2021 Census and attempts to do so would endanger the census exercise itself. can.
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