New Delhi: Population census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste, the Centre has told the Supreme Court, ruling out the possibility of a caste-based census through the latest census exercise.
In an affidavit filed before the top court on 21 September, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said it is not feasible to collect information on Backward Class of Citizens (BCC) in the forthcoming census.
Enumeration of OBCs/BBCs has always been adjudged to be an “administratively extremely complex” process, stated the affidavit, and went on to list the “practical difficulties” in ascertaining an identification criteria for backward classes.
The Central government also found fault with the conduct of the caste census as part of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC-2011) survey and submitted that mistakes committed by enumerators and inherent flaws in the information-collection exercise has rendered the data unusable and cannot be relied upon for any statutory exercise such as reservations in admission, promotion or local body elections.
Furthermore, it added, the SECC-2011 was not an OBC survey, as claimed, but was a comprehensive exercise to enumerate the caste status of all the households in the country. While economic data was used in the implementation of anti-poverty government programmes, the caste data, it submitted, has not been disclosed as it is unusable and cannot be “mentioned as a source of information for population data in any official document”.
The government affidavit was filed in response to a petition filed by the Maharashtra government in August, seeking declaration of SECC-2011 raw caste data of OBCs. The state has claimed the raw caste data is not being made available, despite repeated demands. In case the Centre is unwilling or not in a position to furnish the SECC-2011, then Maharashtra should be allowed to collect the empirical data within the state, the petition demanded.
The matter came before a bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar Thursday. However, it was adjourned by four weeks after Maharashtra government sought time to respond to The Centre’s affidavit in the matter.
The affidavit, placing a formal response of the government, comes at a time when opposition parties have stressed on the need for a caste-based census.
It was also one of the demands raised by the opposition leaders during the debate on the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill, 2021, that restored the power of states and union territories to identify and notify their own lists of OBCs. All contended that in the absence of definite data on OBC, it was difficult to float social-welfare schemes for them.
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‘Basic integrity of caste data may be compromised’
According to the affidavit, the operational difficulties in collecting details on caste during population census are so many that there is a “grave danger that basic integrity of caste data may be compromised and the fundamental population count itself could get distorted”.
Pointing to the “practical difficulties,” the Centre said in some states “orphans and destitute children” are included as OBCs. In such cases, an orphan or a destitute would not respond to the enumerator’s question on whether he or she is an OBC, stated the affidavit.
Also, in many states, those from the scheduled castes who have converted to Christianity are listed as an OBC entry. In such cases, the enumerator has to check the OBC list as well as the SCs list to establish the OBC status. “This would be beyond the capacity of the enumerator,” the affidavit stated.
There are nearly 2,479 OBCs (according to the central government list), including sub-castes, sub-groups, synonyms, whereas the corresponding number of OBCs according to states and UTs is 3,150, stated the affidavit. A question related to OBC will, however, return names of thousands of sub-castes and sub-castes.
This is because people use their clan/gotra, sub-caste, and caste names interchangeably. Many sub-castes and clan or gotra names are common among different castes, explained the affidavit.
Since the knowledge on sub-castes is “highly inadequate,” it would be difficult to meaningfully tabulate and classify SEBC/OBCs. Even the phonetic similarity in the name of castes may also lead to their misclassification and, thus, accentuate the problems. Social and political movements and changes in the names of traditional castes will also lead to problems of classification.
Therefore, the collection of data in respect to backward classes in the upcoming census will pose a serious challenge to enumerators who do not have the means to verify the authenticity of information and more particularly, in regard to income or in regard to orphanage and destitution, stated the affidavit.
Given that castes/SEBCs/OBCs have become an integral part of politics, the affidavit did not rule out “motivated” responses to questions related to caste during the census, which, it claimed, can influence the census results and even put the entire process in jeopardy.
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‘Caste enumeration in SECC-2011 fraught with mistakes’
As regards the SECC-2011 survey, the affidavit denied it carried out any OBC survey and highlighted the anomalies in the data containing nearly 130 crore records. According to the analysis, there are more than 46 lakh different castes, which is an exponential jump compared to 4,147 found during the first Census in India in 1931. “Assuming that some castes may bifurcate into subcastes, the total number cannot be exponentially high to this extent,” the affidavit claimed.
With regard to Maharashtra, the Centre said, the analysis revealed, out of a total population of 10.3 crore, population with “no caste” was 1.17 crore, whereas the total castes enumerated were as many as 4,28,677. However, the existing castes which are published in Maharashtra in SC, ST and OBC categories are only 494 — 47 ST, 59 SC and 388 OBC.
“Considering the aforesaid, it is apparent that the caste enumeration in SECC-2011 was fraught with mistakes and inaccuracies. A further analysis showed that more than 99 per cent of the castes enumerated had a population of less than 100 persons,” the affidavit disclosed.
Highlighting the inaccuracies in SECC-2011, the affidavit stated that in several instances enumerators who visited each household spelt each caste in different ways. For example, Pawar and Powar, though phonetically similar and would be grouped as one OBC, were shown as two separate OBC categories.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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