SC declines to entertain petition on caste census
- January 21, 2023
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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SC declines to entertain petition on caste census
Subject : Polity
Section: Constitution framework
Concept :
- Bench comprising Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Vikram Nath refused to entertain the petitions and asked the petitioners to approach the high court.
- The pleas were submitted on the ground that the caste-based census “violated the basic structure of the Constitution”.
Caste Census
- Caste Census is the demand to include the caste-wise tabulation of India’s population in the upcoming exercise.
- Caste, a powerful cultural underpinning of Indian culture, was last included in the Indian Census in 1931.
- The drill was carried out at the time by the Britishers. From 1951 to 2011, every census in independent India provided data on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes but not on other castes.
- The Britishers ended the practice in the 1941 Census, citing cost restrictions. The lost parameter was not picked up by the Indian government.
- In the absence of such a census, there is no reliable estimate of the number of OBCs, other categories within OBCs, and others.
How have details of the cast been collected so far?
- While information on SC/STs is collected as part of the census, enumerators do not collect data on other castes.
- The most common method is to self-declare to the enumerator about the backward class one belongs to.
- Until now, backward classes commissions in various states have conducted their own census to determine the population of backward castes.
- The Mandal Commission estimated 52 percent of the OBC population; other statistics are based on data from the National Sample Survey. Political parties create their own estimates for state, Lok Sabha, and Assembly seats during elections.
Difference between SECC and Caste Census
- The Census presents a portrait of the Indian people, whereas the SECC is a tool for identifying state assistance recipients.
- Because the Census is conducted in accordance with the Census Act of 1948, all data are deemed secret, however the SECC website states that “all personal information submitted in the SECC is open for use by Government agencies to award and/or restrict benefits to families.”
Socio-Economic and Caste Census :
- The Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was conducted in 2011 for the first time since 1931.
- SECC is meant to canvass every Indian family, both in rural and urban India, and ask about their:
- Economic status, so as to allow Central and State authorities to come up with a range of indicators of deprivation, permutations, and combinations of which could be used by each authority to define a poor or deprived person.
- It is also meant to ask every person their specific caste name to allow the government to re-evaluate which caste groups were economically worse off and which were better off.