The system of statistical data collection in India needs reform in order to meet actual requirements.  * There is a concern that caste-tribe-religion wise data may cause them to be used for political ends * Another concern is that they may consolidate rather than reduce consciousness around identity in terms of caste and religion * These fears are not borne out by experience; if anything, the experience is to the contrary The use...

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will head the promised Group of Ministers (GoM) that will examine the modalities of enumeration of caste in Census 2011, senior government sources told TheHindu. The GoM was constituted on June 4, nine days after the Union Cabinet took a decision to do so. Its 10 other members are the representatives of all the Congress' partners in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA): Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Defence...

The family of newly-elected Dalit sarpanch of Bapora — village of Army chief VK Singh — has been ostracized for participating in election despite the village deciding to boycott it on ground that all major panchayat and zila parishad posts had been reserved for Scheduled castes. The ostracization has led to a situation in which the new sarpanch, a brick-kiln labourer and an SC, has been given armed security by...

The country is in a vortex of challenges, counter-challenges and suspicious suggestions even amongst good friends on the desirability or otherwise of inclusion of caste in Census 2011. I feel that a calmer discussion may clear a number of cobwebs. It is common ground that the caste system exists in our country since centuries. It is unnecessary to dilate upon the origin of caste; whether due to the freezing of the...

"It is wrong to say that we will become a super cabinet. We are here to get the Indian bureaucracy to see reason to carry forward social projects related to areas like health, food, agriculture speedily and make sure that people like (Planning Commission deputy chairman) Montek Singh Ahluwalia gets the correct picture and figures on social issues," a member of the National Advisory Council told rediff.com. The member argued...