Caste can8217;t be cast off

The population figures of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes are required to be collected for the purpose of reserving seats in legislatures for them. In many cases, data will have to be collected even about patently illegal matters in order to form an idea about the incidence of such activities.

Child marriage and child labour are two examples. Both these are violations of laws, but it would be highly unwise to cite that as a ground for not collecting data on them. On the other hand, concrete data on the extent and whereabouts of their occurrence would be essential to deal with them.

Caste in India is no doubt highly complex and the number of castes is legion. W.C. Plowden, associated with the 1872 census, observed: 8220;On the subject of caste, the results obtained are by no means commensurate with the labour involved, and, unless some better arrangements are made, it would probably be advisable to omit the column altogetherquot;. The crux of Plowden8217;s scepticism was whether the information gained had repaid the trouble taken in the compilation. His advice to omit the column was with the proviso: 8220;unless some other arrangements are ma-de8221;, in view of the then obtaining situation where the 8220;results obtained are by no means commensurate with the labour involved8221;. This was because, at that time, there were no caste-based quotas or other government policies and programmes based on caste.

The position has changed radically since Independence. Reservation in service has been extended to the backward castes after 1991. Governments have launched many welfare schemes for the backward classes. There are separate ministries and departments both at the Centre and in the states to look after the welfare and development of the SCs, STs, and the backward castes. There are also separate corporations and agencies for implementing welfare schemes and providing financial assistance to such castes.

The caste composition of the society is assiduously followed in the selection of ministers at the Centre and in the states, members of the Public Service Commissions and chairmen of state corporations. Caste composition, encompassing both the forward and the backward, is invariably taken into account by political parties while picking contestants for the legislatures and local government bodies. Our society and polity are steeped in caste in all matters of power, position and patronage and there is no point in turning a blind eye to this reality. The census holds a mirror up to contemporary society and mirrors do not lie.

It has been argued that, if the data on backward castes are required for purposes of reservation, collection of census data could be limited to such castes alone and that data on all castes need not be collected. This is not workable and will not yield correct data on backward castes alone. For the purpose of enumerating the SC and ST population, the census enumerator relies on the notified lists for each state, but there is no such unambiguous and uniform list in the case of backward castes BCs. There are two separate lists a Central list and a state list of BCs. Even these lists have many inaccuracies and incongruities and other complicating factors.

Some states have identified BCs based on the income criteria. But the census does not ask questions on income for the obvious reason that people will not divulge this information. In Tamil Nadu, 8220;orphans and destitute children who have lost their parents before reaching the age of ten and are destitutes and have nobody else to take care of them either by law or custom, and also who are admitted into any of the schools or orphanages run by the government or recognised by the government8221; are to be treated as belonging to BCs. Such investigations cannot be expected to be done by the enumerator in a massive and time-bound operation like the census. If the enumeration is limited to the BCs, there is also every likelihood of widespread complaints of under-enumeration from many communities.

Caste-wise break-up of the population will facilitate cross-classification with various social, economic, cultural and demographic characteristics and thus provide a wealth of data on the levels achieved by each community in various indices like literacy and education, work characteristics, age at marriage, fertility, infant and child mortality, and death rate. This will help governments and social organisations give special attention to backward communities in achieving social and economic progress by identified indices.

There have been demands since 1991 for inclusion of the question on caste in the census from various quarters. Writs have also been filed in many high courts. A case filed in the Kerala High Court at the time of the 1991 census was disposed of with the direction to the Union government to consider the question of inclusion of caste in the 2001 census. A writ has recently been filed in the Karnataka High Court by a former Law Minister of Karnataka and others seeking directions of the court to include caste in the 2001 census questionnaire. Only a small section has been opposing the inclusion of caste. Some have even made the alarmist prediction that, if caste is included in the census, there will be self-immolations all over the country on a much larger scale than in the post-Mandal days. But while the anti-Mandal protest was against job reservation affecting the bread and butter of apprehensive youth, mere collection of caste data can entail no such opposition.

After the post-Independence euphoria, when it was vainly thought that caste had been cast off, the course of democratic India has seen the resurgence of caste in the polity through the decades, with caste awareness reaching a high in the post-Mandal 1990s. The first census since then, in 2001, is the right time to reintroduce the caste question in the census questionnaire and fill the glaring sociological data gap.

The writer belongs to the IAS and was Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India