As Modi govt announces caste census, how a UPA bid collapsed, amid claims of ‘inaccuracies’ 

2010

About a year into its second term, the UPA government was taken by surprise when its ally RJD and Samajwadi Party along with the JD(U) raised the demand for a caste headcount along with the 2011 decadal Census.

The Congress and BJP, then the main Opposition party, did not have a clear-cut position on caste census although a section of the OBC leaders within the parties were in favour. The Home Ministry under P Chidambaram argued that including caste in the list of questions during the Census exercise would yield inaccurate results owing to logistical problems.

“Population Census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste. The operational difficulties are so many that there is a grave danger that the basic integrity of the Census data may be compromised and the fundamental population count itself could get distorted,” the Home Ministry told the Cabinet.

But the socialist parties in the Hindi heartland — with OBCs as their main voter base — persisted with their demand. They also vociferously opposed the women’s reservation Bill in its then form as part of this. As they looked for ways to resurrect their OBC politics, for the heartland parties it also made sense to seek caste and community quota within the women’s reservation Bill.

Under pressure, the government agreed to a debate on caste census in Parliament, though some ministers remained opposed. Seeking to broadbase its support beyond Hindutva, the BJP, however, had by then veered around to favouring a caste census.

Over May 6 and 7, 2010, a discussion was held in Parliament on the issue. While it reflected the divisions within the party, a majority of the leaders who spoke, including those from the BJP, favoured a caste census.

This prompted the government to review its stand. The Home Ministry, which was opposed to a caste-based census, also nuanced its position and argued that a caste-based headcount can be done — but only after tabulation of Census figures — during the biometric capture phase, when photographing, fingerprinting and iris mapping of citizens for the National Population Register (NPR) would be done.

On May 27, the UPA government finally referred the contentious issue to a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The GoM too was sharply divided, and ended up seeking the opinion of all political parties. Most of the parties including the BJP backed a caste-based headcount.

That September, the decision to hold a caste headcount was taken.

2011

In June 2011, the Ministry of Rural Development began the SECC exercise. The study of the socio-economic status of close to 25 crore rural and urban households had three components, divided under three separate authorities but under the overall coordination of the Department of Rural Development.

Census in rural areas was conducted by the Rural Development Ministry, while the study in urban areas was held under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. Overall, the caste census was under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs: Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India.

But the enumeration of households and tabulation of the data were plagued by delays and missed multiple deadlines. While the enumeration was finally completed by the end of 2012, the data was not ready till the end of 2013.

A UPA minister told The Indian Expresst hat the provisional data was ready by September-October 2013, but with general elections due soon, a call was taken to let the next government release the data.

The UPA lost power in the May 2014 polls, with the Modi-led NDA government coming to power.

2015-16