2011: Centre says no to Census based on caste
March 5, 2010: The Indian Express
The Congress-led UPA government has decided against including caste as one of the parameters in the 2011 Census.
Parties like the PMK, DMK, RJD and JD (U) had, over the past few years, called for a caste-based Census, and the PMK even approached the Supreme Court last April with its demand. The apex court, however, shot down the demand as it felt that ¶the proposed move could cause immense strife¶ and that ¶this is why it had not been done for the last 60 years¶.
The last caste-based Census was held in 1931, but there have been sporadic calls for one after the implementation of the Mandal Commission Report. West Bengal’s Left Front government was the only state government to make a representation to the Centre for conducting a caste-based Census, Parliament was informed last week.
When reached for comments, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai confirmed on Thursday that caste would not be included as a parameter in the 2011 Census. The office of the Registrar General of India, that oversees the Census exercise, comes under the Home Ministry.
Data on demographic and socio-economic parameters like age, sex, SC/ST status, literacy, religion, mother tongues/languages known, economic activity status and migration are among the 15 parameters that would be collected as part of the 2011 Census. It is learnt that details for the coming Census, including the parameters being employed to prepare the National Population Register, were shared with the Union Cabinet last week.
While the majority political opinion — including the Congress and the BJP — was said to be against a caste-based Census, sources in the government also cited ¶practical and logistical difficulties¶ in including caste in the Census exercise.
¶For one, the idea of Caste is not uniform across the country. Also, how would an enumerator cross-check the claims of someone belonging to caste A or B,¶ a source said.
Sources also said that a comprehensive database on the population would be made available, in electronic form, in a year’s time after the commencement of the exercise as against around five in the past.
