Case based census in India- Needed ?

Post 1949, census has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. All the censuses since 1951 were conducted in every decades under the 1948 Census of India Act.

Need of census: The census provides information that government needs to develop policies, plan and run public services, and allocate funding.

The unique features of India, caste has possessed various challenges since it creation. Recently there is a demand for caste based census 2021 broader than socio economic caste census 2011.

Need for caste based census

1. Understanding levels: Welfare level of communities are majorly determined by their castes. Social backwardness coupled with poor financial standing creates double whammy.
2. Better policy formulation:  Having a caste based distributional figures, spatially and temporally will enable the stakeholders to assess the position and help in policy making
3. Rationalize reservation: It will assist in caste based reservation grant. Eg. subgrouping of castes under OBC as few castes materialise all the benefits
4. Lowers agitations: It helps wiping out of un necessary agitations by dominant castes such as Jats, Gujjars which may have no rational basis for their demands
5. Better decisions making: It will facilitate the govt and other institutions (FC, EC) to take logical and rational decisions. Eg. distributing funds among states from central pool
6. Lack of other reliable data: Lack of other alternative reliable and efficient methods urges need for this census.

Issues with caste based census

1. Constitutional spirit of casteless society: Highlights caste as a criteria sabotaging governments aim to discourage caste as a basis of identity.
2. Administrative issues: number of castes and sub castes.
3. Errors: Blurring of lines as individuals may make errors in telling their exact castes & is difficult to ascertain correctness of data collected.
4. Possible protests: if the data comes out in the open, the marginalised castes may resort to violent protests
5. Economic issues: SECC was not conducted with regular census & require a huge machinery and funds on the ground.
6. Data misuse: Data can be misused to play caste card in elections and caste based political mobilization.

Caste is already playing a great role in society, politics and policy making. Even though a caste based census has potential to further divide our society, it will help in policy making. Hence a proper plan must be carried out to conduct this census so that there won’t be any misfortune in future.