Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 7.05.2010 assured the Lok Sabha that the government would soon take a decision on the Opposition demand for a caste-based census. “I am aware of the views of the Members of Parliament belonging to all sections. I assure you that the Cabinet will take a decision shortly,” Dr. Singh said in a brief statement.
The statement put at ease agitated Opposition members, particularly Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav. The three leaders and other Opposition members were ruffled over Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s reply to the debate on census. He said there were difficulties in conducting a caste-based census and the government would keep in mind the members’ views.
As soon as the Minister concluded his reply, which was punctuated by interruptions from the Opposition benches, and the House was adjourned to meet again at 2.30 p.m., on 7.5.2010, the three leaders approached the Prime Minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee. They were seen talking to them, trying to elicit some kind of an assurance on their demand. They also held a meeting with Mr. Mukherjee separately, when BJP’s deputy leader Gopinath Munde was also present.
When Dr. Singh gave the assurance soon after the House reassembled, the three leaders thanked him and the Congress president for trying to resolve the matter in an amicable manner.
Earlier, while taking note of the discussion over the last two days that witnessed arguments and reasons for canvassing the question of caste, Mr. Chidambaram said the government was seized of the matter. “The views of honourable members will certainly be a valuable guide to the government,” he said in his statement, which virtually gave out nothing but offered explanation relating to the Census 2011 and preparation of the National Population Register (NPR), the two exercises which are on. The debate on the issue saw members cutting across party lines favouring a caste-based census.
Replying to the debate, the Home Minister stressed that the main aim of the exercise was headcount and listed difficulties in including caste in the list. The Registrar-General had pointed out a number of logistics and practical difficulties in canvassing the question of caste while conducting census. However, he assured the House that the government “will give due weight to all aspects of the issue.”
“The enumerator is not an investigator or verifier,” Mr. Chidambaram said, pointing out that 21 lakh enumerators — mostly primary school teachers — had no training or expertise to classify the answer as OBC or otherwise.
“There is a Central list of OBCs and State-specific lists of OBCs. Some States do not have a list of OBCs while some have a list of OBCs and a sub-set called Most Backward Castes,” he said.
Quoting the Registrar-General, Mr. Chidambaram said issues regarding methodology, avoiding phonetic and spelling errors, stage of canvassing of caste, maintaining integrity of enumeration and doing an accurate headcount of population would arise.
“The census is done under the authority of the Census Act, 1948. Census 2011 will be the 15{+t}{+h} national census since 1872 and the 7{+t}{+h} since Independence. Population census is the total process of collecting demographic, economic and social data. What is published as the census data are only aggregates; the information relating to the individual is confidential and not shared with anyone or any authority,” he said.
While throwing up the question if the census was the vehicle to carry out caste-based enumeration, he pointed out that records showed that an attempt was made by the Ministry of Social Justice to include caste as one of the questions that should be canvassed in the 2001 Census. “However, the government of the day — the NDA government — did not take a decision to that effect and maintained the policy that has been in force since 1951,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
GoM approval for caste- based census in India
Ending months of fractious debates across the political spectrum, a Group of Ministers ( GoM), headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, gave its seal of approval to the enumeration of caste in Census 2011 on 11.08.2010.
The GoM, sources said, has recommended that the caste headcount should be done at the biometric stage. Most significantly, it will not be just an OBC headcount, but a comprehensive caste headcount, with every citizen being asked which caste he or she belongs to. This data will be tabulated and analysed later to arrive at figures of different castes in the country, it is learnt. The GoM’s recommendations will now be taken to the Union Cabinet, and the caste headcount should begin in December, 2010, official sources said. The biometric phase will cover photographing, fingerprinting and iris mapping of all citizens over the age of 15 for the National Population Register ( NPR).
The GoM was set up after parties, cutting across the political spectrum, had vociferously backed a caste headcount in May, 2010 during the budget session of Parliament. Subsequently, when it appeared that the BJP was having second thoughts on the subject, because of RSS pressure, the Congress, which is deeply divided on the issue, decided that it would not proceed till it received written approvals for caste enumeration from all parties. Eventually, pushed by its OBC constituency, a reluctant BJP, too, gave its approval, leaving the Congress with no option but to go ahead with a caste headcount.
Cabinet to decide on modalities
The government on 12.08.2010 said a final decision on the modalities of inclusion of caste in the census would be taken by the Cabinet.
Making a statement in the Lok Sabha — a day after the Group of Ministers (GoM) agreed to include caste in the census — Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee said the GoM had decided that caste would be canvassed without affecting the integrity of the headcount. An appropriate decision on the modalities of canvassing the caste was yet to be taken. How and when it would be done was still under consideration.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal (United), the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal raised the issue when the House convened for the day demanding inclusion of caste in census at the headcount stage itself and not at the biometric stage as suggested in media reports.
“Biometric stage will never come,” Mulayam Singh (SP) said. Similar sentiments were expressed by Sharad Yadav (JD-U), who said the biometric stage would not come in the next “100 years” as the government was yet to complete the process of issuing photo election cards to the people.
The Opposition members said enumeration of castes would not be possible at the biometric stage as it was a “long-drawn” process. Moreover, only those above 15 years would be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database, they contended.
After Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the proceedings till noon, as some of the members trooped into the well, the leaders of the parties met Mr. Mukherjee where it was agreed upon that the government would address their concerns and make a statement.
Tamil Nadu CM hails nod for caste-wise enumeration
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on 12.08.2010 welcomed the approval of the Group of Ministers (GoM) for enumeration of caste in Census 2011. Thanking the Centre, Mr Karunanidhi said the United Progressive Alliance government’s move was historic as such an enumeration would be done after a gap of nearly 80 years. He recalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance to Parliament a few months ago in this regard. The latest move would be of great use to Tamil Nadu for implementing the Supreme Court’s latest order on the 69 per cent reservation law.
Letter to the Group of Ministers on caste Census – 14.08.2010
Honourable Members,
We welcome your decision to enumerate caste in Census 2011. This is a progressive and much needed step towards re- orienting our polity and revitalising the implementation of social policy.
We are, however, deeply distressed to learn that you have recommended that the collection of caste data be done in conjunction with the National Population Register ( NPR) process at the biometric data capture stage. We respectfully urge you to reconsider this move because it will not only defeat the very purpose of enumerating caste, but will condemn the entire exercise to almost certain failure.
Please note, Honourable Members, that even its most ardent supporters have never claimed that caste enumeration will be easy. Every Indian Census, for at least the past three decades, has been the largest and most complex project of its kind in human history. The Census of India ( or the Office of the Registrar General of India — ORGI) is the only competent agency in the country with the necessary expertise and experience to undertake this gigantic task. It has successfully collected caste data in the past, and with the vastly superior technological resources available today, it can do so again despite the challenge of enumerating 120 crore Indians. The collection of caste data at the stage of biometric capture would be cumbersome and time consuming. Outside agencies are likely to be involved, and therefore there are chances of data gathering being compromised because it would be tagged on to the huge task of biometric documentation of about 84 crore Indians. If caste data are compromised, it will defeat the very objectives that the data are meant to achieve. The respective time frames are also important — the Census enumeration phase will definitely be over by March 2011 whereas the biometric data capture process is likely to take much longer.
An even more decisive argument against attaching caste enumeration to biometric data capture is that, as of now, it is not clear what socio- economic or educational data — if any — will be available through this method.
If all we get is a headcount of castes among the 15- plus population, then the entire exercise is a waste. The main reason to enumerate caste is to enable the distribution of national resources and opportunities to be informed by empirical evidence on sex- ratios, literacy, life expectancy, occupation, household assets, and so on.
Without such evidence, all the problems that are blocking the implementation of social justice policies will remain unsolved. By contrast, we know that including caste in the existing enumeration process scheduled for February 2011 will enable all the data normally collected by the Census to be correlated with caste. This method will have the additional advantage of the close supervision of a trained body of census officials.
Finally, there are the constitutionallegal issues, and the crucial question of confidentiality. The Census Act 1948 provides strong protection for all data collected by the Census, and this has ensured that the Census — which necessarily collects individual information —has released only aggregated and anonymised data. Given the absence of such protection under the Citizenship Rules of 2003 — which governs the NPR and the biometric data capture process —there is every chance of the confidentiality of caste data being breached. If the main concern is to eliminate the possibility of inflation of numbers and to protect the integrity of the head count, then other measures are available. For example, the household population totals ( along with gender breakup) already collected in the House- listing and Housing Census Schedule can be used as a check on the caste data at the enumeration stage.
It is for all these reasons that, at a recent national conference organised by the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion of the National Law School of India, Bengaluru, a group of distinguished academics, policy and legal experts agreed unanimously that the proper agency for caste enumeration is the ORGI, and the proper stage is the house- to- house Population Enumeration phase of Census 2011 to be conducted from February 9– 28, 2011. In fact, the group went so far as to issue a strong warning against associating caste enumeration with the NPR process.
Enumerating castes has compelling benefits for our society. It will invigorate our social justice policies; provide the credible evidence demanded by our judiciary; allow the revision of beneficiary group listings; and help profile India’s social diversity. Therefore, we congratulate you, Honourable Members, for having taken this bold and visionary step. We also appeal to you not to undo the good that you have done. We urge you to entrust caste enumeration to the tried and trusted census organisation and avoid the serious risks of linking it to biometric data capture.
Signatories to the above letter:
Dr. M. Vijayanunni, Former Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Justice M. N. Rao, Chairperson, National Commission for the Backward Classes, Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairperson, University Grants Commission, Prof. Satish Deshpande, Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Prof. Yogendra Yadav, Political Scientist, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Prof. S. Japhet, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion, National Law School of India, Bengaluru, Dr. Chandan Gowda, Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion, National Law School of India, Bengaluru, Prof. Valerian Rodrigues, Political Scientist, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Prof. Ravi Varma Kumar, Senior Advocate and former Chairperson, Karnataka Backward Classes Commission.
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