Bihar has decided to start the caste-based census very soon. Those to be involved in the mega exercise will be given proper training and the report will be published.
- All parties which have representation in the Legislature attended the meeting on June 1, chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
- CM Nitish Kumar said that the exercise would be called Jaati Aadharit Ganana.
- Earlier, the Bihar Legislature passed resolutions twice for caste-based census and and an 11-member all-party delegation too had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand the exercise. However, the Central government had rejected their demand saying it would be a “divisive exercise” but said “States can hold caste census on their own”.
History of Caste census
- Caste census means inclusion of caste-wise tabulation of India’s population in the Census exercise, which is a decennial count of the Indian population.
- The first census in India began in 1872 and the periodic count in 1881 under British rule. Since then, the data on caste was always included, though only till 1931.
- Every Census in independent India from 1951 to 2011 has published data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but not on other castes. Before that, every Census until 1931 had data on caste.
- A separate Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) was conducted in 2011.
- At the national level, whereas the total number of castes as per the last caste census of 1931 was 4,147, the SECC-2011 showed the presence of 46 lakh different castes.
- Since the total number cannot be “exponentially high to this extent”, the central government has said this entire data set is flawed and the census unreliable, rendering it unusable for the purposes of reservations and policy. For these reasons, it has refused to make public even the raw caste data of the SECC-2011.
- States like Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana have carried out similar counts in the name of a “socio-economic survey”.
Constitution and Census
- The population census is a Union subject (Article 246) and is listed at number 69 of the seventh schedule of the Constitution.
- The Census Act 1948 forms the legal basis for the conduct of census in independent India. States cannot independently order a census.
(Sources: The Hindu, TOI, Indian Express etc.)
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