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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Census & data

The process for finalising the parameters for the 2011 Census is on, and a key question is yet to be answered. In response to a question in Parliament, Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken said that the census exercise would be conducted between February 9 and 28, 2011. But there was no word on whether information on caste would be elicited. India’s decennial census is the largest data collection exercise in the world, and there is a strong demand that in addition to parameters like gender, age, languages known, economic activity status, there be information on caste. With reservations for Other Backward Classes in government jobs and now in higher education, the argument is that informed estimates about the castes and groups covered in this category would facilitate better development planning.

Ever since the Mandal Commission’s recommendations on job reservations were accepted by the Centre, great argument has raged on the accuracy of the numbers informing the quotas. Besides assessing the numerical spread of different groups, the exercise would also update their relative backwardness — and thereby make viable the process of adding and deleting groups to the OBC list. But caste is a complicated issue, and some sociologists challenge the idea that a question in the Census would yield accurate data. In a recent article in this newspaper, A.M. Shah challenged the idea that caste is a discrete unit easily quantifiable through the Census. Far from being defined by endogamy — that is, marriage within a caste group — migration, inter-marriage and economic activity have changed caste identity from its textbook representation. So, he asked, who would answer questions about caste, the household or each individual? Given that caste boundaries can be blurred, he asked: “Should the government become an agency in imposing rigidity?”

The counter-argument is that nobody would be coerced to answer questions on caste identity. And that instead of being asked the simple question, what is your caste, respondents would be given a list of groups covered in the OBC categories, and asked whether they belong to any. Given how persuasive each side is, whether to include the caste category in the Census will clearly be a tough call for the Central government.