-The Hindu “It has suffered, and will suffer, both on account of completeness and accuracy of the data,” an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Supreme Court said. The government has made it clear in the Supreme Court that a caste census of the Backward Classes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome”. The Centre reasoned that even when the census of castes were taken in the pre-Independence period,...

-The Hindu It is required to document both the disadvantages and privileges of various communities in India At the recently concluded Parliament session, there was a demand to lift the 50% cap on reservation imposed by the Supreme Court through the legislative route. With the 2021 Census coming up, several political parties have demanded a nation-wide caste census. They argue that a Socio-Economic Caste Census is the only way to make a...

-The Hindu Dalit-Muslim alliances are not enough; upper caste Hindus are needed too, to restore secularism Ever since the Sachar Committee Report of 2006 demonstrated that the socio-economic conditions of Muslims have worsened compared to Dalits, some have argued that Muslims have become India’s new Dalits. It is further proposed that the two communities should forge an alliance to fight the Hindu Right to restore secularism because together they constitute a significant...

-The Indian Express Governments can learn much on how to construct a social welfare system for farmers from Odisha's KALIA scheme for DIS. The recent farmer agitation has brought the issue of farmer distress front and centre in the public consciousness. The time seems ripe to find new solutions to the structural challenges facing farmers. One promising step is the shift from non-targeted agriculture subsidies towards direct income support (DIS). A key...

-Business Standard/ India Spend The index ranks states in terms of women holding land rights in percentage points Look hard. Do you see any woman among the protesting farmers? The reason is simple — Women hardly own agricultural land. Lakshadweep and Meghalaya are the best among all the 35 states and Union Territories at providing land rights to women; Punjab and West Bengal are the worst, according to an index created by the...