Any affirmative action towards any depressed classes in India is based on colonial data and a few special purpose surveys. In such a situation, do you agree with the view that India should go for a full caste census? Critically comment and examine the challenges in obtaining such census. (200 words)
Refer – The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· Need – Economic growth and affirmative action by governments have changed relative fortunes of various groups.
· If we want information regarding the size and characteristics of various castes in India, we must continue to look to the census of 1931.
· Hence, it is time to collect data that reflects the current situation.
· Without caste data, the discourse on caste and affirmative action are dominated by decisions made by the colonial administration.
· Collecting data on caste is now essential to rationalise the reservation policies.
Impact
· On Society – There are apprehensions that caste based census would further promote:
a) Caste-based political mobilisation
b) strong sentiments for or against reservations
· Post-Independence Censuses have thus shied away from including questions about caste.
· However, Patels, Gujjars, Jats and Marathas do not seem to care about the lack of Census data as they demand reservations.
· Also, even without caste census, caste does play a role in elections in terms of vote banks.
· So, the social apprehensions on implications of caste census are largely invalid.
Challenges
· Sometimes the same caste is spelt in different ways, or individuals report their jati and others upjati.
· This makes it difficult to create mutually exclusive categories.
Suggestions
· Comprehensive list of castes can be made and condensed into meaningful categories through the data obtained from Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 via machine learning tools.
· These categories could then be validated by domain experts in various States.
· It can then be used to make a district specific list of castes that would cover more than 90% of individuals in any given district.
· Respondents can then be allowed to self-identify from the pre-coded list.
