Caste-based census impractical, Centre set to tell Parliament
6 May 2010, 0616 hrs IST,ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Cabinet meeting on Tuesday may have been confronted
with demand for caste-based census, but the government will cite
practical
difficulties and scope for inflating OBC figures to ward off pressure
from within and outside.
Home minister P Chidambaram is expected to unveil government's
thinking on the issue in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The home ministry,
which is opposed to the demand for the inclusion of caste figures, has
been maintaining that it was fraught with `` dangerous consequences''.
In a note drafted for the Cabinet, it cited `` operational
difficulties'' in carrying out such an exercise which, if executed,
would overshadow its basic objective itself. There were, the home
ministry note pointed out, 1,885 notified SCs and STs in India. But
the number returned in the 2001 census was 18,478. There were, in
addition, surnames and clan names, and classification and grouping
under SC/ST itself was a formidable task. In the event of a
caste-based census, hundreds of castes will be returned with people
using clan names and gotra interchangeably.
The total number of OBCs were 6,000, including castes and sub groups.
There were two separate sets of OBC lists — one for the Centre, and
the other for the states. Several complex entries are very difficult
to comprehend at the level of the enumerator who is only a primary
school teacher.
For instance, the OBC list in the state was not easy to comprehend.
Dhobi in Delhi, Kohli in Maharashtra, Patua in UP and Rajjhar in MP
were also names in the list of SCs. Again, orphans and destitute
children were listed as OBCs in Tamil Nadu.
Microscopic and probing inquiries into caste, the note added, was not
possible at the level of enumerator. `` It is difficult to tabulate
and classify OBCs... the phonetic similarity in the name of castes may
lead to confusion in the enumerator's mind and throw up inaccurate
data,'' the note said.
Meanwhile, new and renewable energy minister Farooq Abdullah, who
backed the demand for caste-based census at the Cabinet meeting,
claimed the debate on the issue centred on the need to go in for
caste-distribution figures in the 2021 census, and not in the exercise
which has been just been kicked off.
The issue had brought out serious differences in the Cabinet, with
members such as Mr Veerappa Moily, Mr Vayalar Ravi, Mr S Jaipal Reddy,
Mr A Raja and Mr M K Alagiri pitching strongly for the resumption of
caste-baste census, and home minister P Chidambaram, Mr Anand Sharma
and Mr Mukul Wasnik opposing it.
The House was adjourned thrice after RJD and Samajwadi Party MPs
rushed to the well of the House protesting against BJP general
secre-tary and former Union minister Ananth Kumar's description of Mr
Lalu Prasad as `antinational' for opposing efforts to identify and
de-port illegal Bangladeshi immigrants .The decision to club the
creation of a National Population Register with the census operation,
the BJP leader maintained, would only end up legitimising illegal
immigrants.
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