An Analysis On The Caste Census And Its Effects On Administration

S.S. Aswath Adithya, B.A. LL.B (Hons), TNDALU, School of Excellence in Law, Chennai

ABSTRACT:

This paper is based on the Bihar caste survey data release and its effects on administration. It focuses on the complications of the caste census and its impacts. The caste survey released by the Bihar Government has once again brought the issue of caste census to the forefront. While the Census of India has been publishing data on Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), there has been no estimate for the population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and other groups. Explaining the concepts, describing, creating awareness and understanding the population of society and what people have access to, and what they are excluded from is important not only for social scientists but also for policy practitioners and the government.

Accordingly, the Census of India is one of the largest exercises of its kind, where it enumerates and gathers information on demographic and socio-economic information on the Indian population.

But in spite of this, the critiques of the exercise of the census consider it as both a data collection effort and a technique of governance, but not quite useful enough for a detailed and comprehensive understanding of a complex society. They suggest regular conduct of caste census in order to understand the societal structure completely. As we can see, it’s strange that while caste plays such a dominating role in our societal, economical and political life, in which caste data exists comprehensively for more than half of the population of our country. But the conduct of the caste census itself has gained resistance from within the society/critics that it may lead to caste based discrimination and violence. The critiques who looked into this concept, suggested that the caste census should not be followed in India, as it never going to lead to the betterment of the nation. This paper approaches the concept of the caste census on these perspectives and concludes with its effects on the administration.

Keywords: Census, Socio-economic, Other Backward classes (OBC), Critiques, Government