Janhit Abhiyan, an umbrella group of professors, writers, filmmakers, journalists and social justice proponents, has, in a statement, denounced the campaign against caste-based census by “a section of intellectuals and media,” and said this amounted to undermining the consensus arrived at in Parliament. The statement was signed among others by Prof. Tulsiram and Prof. Chamanlal of the Jawaharlal Nehru University; writers Surendra Mohan, Sheeba Aslam Fahmi , Umrao Singh Jatav and...

Counting the “invisible” children of Mother India.  While the current focus of political debate is on ‘caste and census,' there is another important aspect that deserves attention. This concerns disability. For decades after our independence, there was no effort to actually count how many of us have any disability. There were estimates- informed or otherwise- but no factual figures. All our government's plans and budgets, rules and regulations, proclamations and posturing...

A pilot survey will be launched next month to assess the number of the poor in the country on a new set of parameters ahead of the scheduled BPL census in April 2011. The government has decided to launch the pilot project in 260 villages across the country to test the parameters suggested by a former Planning Commission member amid a debate on the best way of doing such counts. The project,...

Can more knowledge about our society, about the individuals and groups who constitute it, be a bad thing? I’ve been wondering about this lately, in the context of two government initiatives to gather more knowledge about us Indians, as caste groups and as individuals. Both of these information-gathering exercises—the proposal for a “Caste Census”, which has generated a stormy argument, and the merely desultory discussion over the planned Unique Identification...

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...