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The BJP-led central government’s Wednesday decision to include caste in the forthcoming Census comes in the wake of the caste surveys conducted by at least three states, which have also announced their intention to use the same for the policymaking purposes ahead. Two of these three states, Karnataka and Telangana, are ruled by the Congress, which has been at the forefront of seeking a caste census, while in the third one, Bihar, the Congress was a part of the then Nitish Kumar-led ruling coalition when the survey was carried out.
Bihar
The Bihar Assembly passed a unanimous resolution seeking a Caste Census across the country in February 2020, with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, then heading a Mahagathbandhan government, putting his weight behind it. Despite the Centre dithering on the issue then, in Bihar even the BJP was part of the delegation that met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021 to seek a nationwide caste count.
Later, the Mahagathbandhan government went ahead to hold a statewide caste survey on its own. Its findings, released on October 2, 2023, showed that the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) together constituted more than 63% of the population of Bihar.
In absolute numbers, it put Bihar’s population at 13.07 crore, and put the OBCs at 3.54 crore (27%) and the EBCs at 4.7 crore (36%).
The “forward” castes or “General” category were found to make up 15.5% of the population, while the number of the SCs was estimated to be 20% and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) 1.6%.
The survey also showed that more than a third of Bihar’s families lived on around Rs 200 a day. Among the SCs, that number stands as high as 43.93%. The state is home to about 2.97 crore families, of which more than 94 lakh (34.13%) live on Rs 6,000 or less a month – the cut-off for below poverty line in Bihar.
The survey also pointed out how only 7% of the state’s population are graduates, again bringing into focus unemployment in the state.
On Wednesday, the BJP’s NDA allies from poll-bound Bihar lauded the Narendra Modi government’s announcement for caste enumeration as a “historic step” that would usher in a “more just society”.
The JD(U), which is now with the NDA, pointed out that its president and CM Nitish Kumar created a “favourable ground for development” by carrying out a caste survey in the state.
JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha said the Centre’s decision would help make programmes for the deprived sections more focused.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan said it is an important decision in national interest, saying that his party had long called for it.
The Telangana Socio Economic, Educational, Employment, Political, and Caste survey report also pointed to high numbers of the Backward Classes (BCs).
The BCs make up 56.33% of Telangana’s population, according to the caste survey report.
The SCs and the STs account for 17.43% and 10.45% of the population respectively, according to the survey. Other Castes (OC) make up 15.79% of the population.
In absolute numbers, the BCs’ population in the state is 1,99,85,767, including 35,76,588 BC Muslims. The SC population is 61,84,319 and ST population is 37,05,929. The OC population in the state is 44,21,115.
The Muslim population in the state, according to the survey, is 44,57,012 – about 12.56% of the population, including 10.08% BC Muslims and 2.48% OC Muslims.
The survey covered 3,54,77,554 people and 96.9% of the households in Telangana in a span of 50 days, state minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said.
The caste survey was one of the promises made by the Congress for the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections. The party swept to power that year, defeating the incumbent Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).
The survey also came amidst a clamour for higher BC representation in politics. In the 2023 electins to the 119-member Telangana House, the BRS gave 22 tickets to BCs, while the Congress and the BJP gave 34 and 45 tickets to the community, respectively.
The BCs are a voting bloc all the parties have been wooing because of their sheer population. The support of prominent BC groups such as Gouds, Munnuru Kapus and Yadavs to the Congress was said to have helped it defeat the BRS, which had been in power for 10 years.
In his reaction to the Modi government’s decision to hold a Caste Census,
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy said the Centre’s move “proved that what Telangana does today, India will follow tomorrow”. He also said it was a “proud moment” that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “vision has become a policy even in Opposition”.
The Karnataka caste survey report or the Socio-Economic and Education Survey was commissioned during CM Siddaramaiah’s first term in 2015. The report was however submitted to him only in his current term, on February 29 this year, which was not initially made public due to apprehensions within the Congress about possible adverse reactions from dominant communities such as Vokkaligas and Lingayats, who labeled the exercise “unscientific and outdated”. Even Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, had opposed the release of the survey.
However, with the Congress central leadership emphasising its commitment to social justice at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Ahmedabad in early April — whose resolution highlighted a caste survey conducted in Telangana while calling for a national Caste Census — the survey report was finally tabled before the Siddaramaiah Cabinet on April 11.
The Karnataka caste survey estimated the population of OBCs to be 69.6% – 38% more than existing estimates – and called for increasing their quota in the state from the existing 32% to 51%.
The population of Vokkaligas and Lingayats, who enjoy reservation under the III A and III B categories of OBC reservation, were found to be 12.2% and 13.6%, respectively. This is much less than their general population estimate of 17% and 15% respectively. The survey report has recommended a 4 percentage point increase in the quota under the II B category, paving the way for a 3 percentage point increase in reservation benefits for Vokkaligas and Lingayats.
While the report pays heed to the increased reservation demand of the OBC communities over the years, it has set off a worry. Some leaders feel that the political representation of various communities could take a hit going forward, especially at the time of ticket allocation, due to their population numbers presented by the survey.
For the Congress, this is a tricky situation as it would not want to alienate these communities that have dominated Karnataka politics for decades now. Of its 136 MLAs in Karnataka, 37 are from the Lingayat community and 23 are Vokkaligas. The party had fielded as many as 51 Lingayat candidates in the 2022 Assembly polls.
Another point from the survey that has ignited a row is its proposal for an increase in quota of 7 percentage points — from 15% to 22% — in the II A category that includes communities such as Kurubas to which CM Siddaramaiah belongs.
The state Backward Commission, which has conducted the survey, has also recommended the creation of a new Most Backward Classes (MBC) category, called I B, to be carved out from the II A category. Communities such as Kurubas, who were earlier in II A, have reportedly been recommended for inclusion in the new category with a 12% quota. The II A category itself will have a reduced quota of 10%.
A senior Karnataka Congress leader said that Kurubas were being given “preferential treatment”.
Amid the growing opposition to the survey, the Siddaramaiah Cabinet took up the report for discussion at its special meeting on April 17, but it remained inconclusive. The Cabinet will now meet on May 9 to further discuss the report and take a decision.
Welcoming the Centre’s decision to enumerate castes in the upcoming Census, Siddaramaiah Wednesday urged it to survey the social, economic and educational status of various communities while carrying out the exercise. He urged the Modi government to adopt the “Karnataka model” for the proposed Caste Census.
The previous Andhra Pradesh government under Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSRCP had said that it would begin a comprehensive survey on January 19, 2024 to enumerate all castes in the state. It said it would “transform the living standards of people”.
However, when officials of the current Telugu Desam Party (TDP) were contacted, they said the YSRCP government’s “report never came out”. The YSRCP claimed that they could not make the report public as the Model Code of Conduct for the state’s Assembly and Lok Sabha polls had then come into force.
However, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu had backed the Caste Census in an interview with The Indian Express.
“Caste Census, yes, it has to be done. There is sentiment, and there is nothing wrong with it. You do a Caste Census, you do an economic analysis, and you go for a skill census. You work out how to build all these things and reduce economic disparities,” he had said.
