With the Lok Sabha elections 2024 around the corner, the Opposition has somewhat unitedly, renewed politics centred on caste-based census and quotas. After JD(U), Samajwadi Party and RJD, Congress has also started vociferously demanding a caste census, with the Opposition calling it the need of the hour.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his recent Kolar rally demanded the 2011 caste census be made public and asked the state government to breach the 50 per cent reservation cap fixed by the Supreme Court.
However, the Centre has a different opinion on the matter. The BJP’s central leadership has so far not accepted the demand for a socio-economic and caste census of various backward castes in the same way the number of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people is counted in the decennial census
Renewed Demands
With the general election around the corner, the Opposition seems to be uniting with demand for “social justice” as their slogan and glue. The pot was stirred by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who started a caste survey in the state with endorsement from the Supreme Court.
Maharashtra and Odisha have also requested the Centre to collect caste details in the forthcoming census, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told Lok Sabha during the last winter session. In Maharashtra, Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar, in February, had again raised a demand for Bihar-like caste-based census.
In UP, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has been raising demand for a caste census. Despite no announcement from the Uttar Pradesh government for a caste-based census in the state, Deputy CM and key BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya has backed the demand and said he is “all for it”.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 16 demanding an up-to-date caste census, saying meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes are incomplete in the absence of such data.
Caste Census and Its Need
The caste Census is the caste-wise breakup of India’s population in terms of number and percentage in the Census exercise. India has counted and published caste data of just Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from 1951 to 2011.
It also publishes data related to religions, languages and socio-economic status in the previous censuses.
Population censuses provide a rich empirical database that could help in understanding the nature of the socioeconomic changes that the citizens of the country are experiencing.
When Was the Last caste base Census Done?
India’s last caste-based census was conducted in 1931, and till today, it is the basis for quota caps under the Mandal formula.
The Congress-led-UPA regime compiled the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) in 2011. The reports from the census have been published except that for the caste data.
Why political clamour now?
The demand for the caste-based census is old as caste has always been an intrinsic component of Indian democracy. The available data set is about 90 years old, which is often needed for several welfare programmes.
As caste is a prominent indicator of social demography, the demand for census becomes an issue ahead of polls, especially in regard to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) votes, which constitute a major section of the country’s population. Caste-based parties, especially regional ones, have been strong advocates of caste census.
However, there has been there is a visible hesitation on the part BJP-led central government to update the national data record, reportedly based on the fear that any such exercise would inflame caste-based social and political sentiments which could become a probable challenge to the party’s Hindutva campaign ahead of the 2024 election
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