Cabinet decides to include caste count in next census

Context

• The Union Cabinet has decided to include caste enumeration as part of the next Census exercise, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Wednesday.

• Though the decision comes months ahead of the Bihar Assembly election, the dates for the next decennial Census exercise, last held in 2011, are yet to be notified by the government. The 2021 Census has been postponed indefinitely, initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The last time that India’s entire population was counted by caste was in pre-Independent India, in 1931. Since then, only Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been counted in the Census exercises.

Census

• The origin of the Census in India dates back to the colonial exercise of 1872.

• The first synchronous census was taken in 1881, by W.C. Plowden, Census Commissioner of India. Since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten years.

• The Census of India Act of 1948 provides the legal framework for carrying out the Census however, it does not mention its timing or periodicity.

• Hence, a Census is Constitutionally mandated in India but there is no Constitutional or legal requirement that it needs to be conducted decennially.

• The 10-year frequency is followed in many countries (Ex. the US and the UK) but some countries like Australia, Canada, Japan conduct it every five years.

• The decennial Census is conducted by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs.

• • Census is used by the government, policymakers, academics, and others to capture the Indian population, access resources, map social change, and conduct delimitation exercises.

Need for a Caste Census:

• Addressing Inequities: Helps identify intra-caste disparities and ensures equitable allocation of resources.

• Empirical Evidence for Policies: Provides a data-driven basis for affirmative action.

• Monitoring Effectiveness: Enables assessment of existing reservation policies.

• Governance: Guides resource allocation and better implementation of welfare schemes.

Challenges to Caste census:

• Complexity in Classification: Similar-sounding castes or regional variations lead to misclassification.

• Upward/Downward Mobility Claims: Self-reporting influenced by perceived benefits.

• Administrative Feasibility: Inadequate training of enumerators and lack of infrastructure.

• Data Integrity: Risks of data manipulation due to political and social pressures.

• Societal Divisions: Potential hardening of caste identities