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Government not for caste census
Sujay Mehdudia and Siddharth Varadarajan
Opinion in Cabinet divided
New Delhi: Despite the growing demand for collection of caste-wise
data during the ongoing Census exercise, the Union government has
decided there will be no change in the way the population is being
enumerated. At the same time, it is ready to discuss and consider
other ways of generating a more accurate statistical picture of the
caste composition of Indian society, highly placed sources told The
Hindu on Tuesday.
With a number of national and regional parties demanding that the
current census be modified to include caste, the Cabinet discussed the
matter in order to firm up the government's position before
Wednesday's discussion in Parliament. But though the status quo is to
prevail, the meeting saw sharp divisions between Ministers arguing for
and against change. According to sources, there were three distinct
positions: those opposed to any collection of caste data, those
opposed to the use of the census but not to some other statistical or
survey method, and those in favour of including caste in the census.
The Census of India, which was first conducted synchronously in 1881,
collected universal caste-wise population data until 1931. Though the
census continues to count the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled
Tribes, the Other Backward Classes have not been enumerated for 80
years, prompting some parties to argue that their share of the
population — and, thus, to the reservation pie — might be higher than
what the Mandal Commission extrapolated from decades-old census data.
At Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, whose
Ministry oversees the census, argued against the demand to include
caste. He said the enumerators lacked the sociological sensitivity to
record and classify the population on the basis of caste and
sub-caste. According to sources, he suggested that the backward
classes commissions at the State and Central levels be better placed
to conduct a detailed survey. Others not inclined towards a caste
census were Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Human Resources
Minister Kapil Sibal.
The meeting ended with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointing to the
need for more discussion in government and within the UPA
constituents.
Opposition parties, including the BJP, the SP, the RJD, the JD(U) and
the CPI, have been demanding that since reservation and other benefits
were given to people on the basis of caste, the government should
reintroduce caste in the census.
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