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Cabinet clears caste census in 2011

er several delibera ons within the government on the poli cally-sensi ve issue, the Union cabinet decided to carry out a separate house-tohouse caste enumera on from June to September next year Giving in to demands from almost all poli cal par es, government on Sep 9 2010. decided to hold caste census next year under an exercise to be carried out separately from the enumera on of popula on. A er several delibera ons within the government on the poli cally-sensi ve issue, the Union cabinet decided to carry out a
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Caste Census
A
separate house-to-house caste enumera on from June to September next year. According to home minister P. Chidambaram, a er considering various op ons, the op on that we have approved is, based on the responses of various poli cal par es, that caste must be canvassed and the integrity of the headcount must not be aected. The caste enumera on will be conducted in a phased manner a er the popula on enumeraon, which will include biometric capture and headcount, is completed by March next year, he said. He evaded a reply when

By : Avadhesh Kumar Pandey

asked whether caste enumeraon would be merged with the headcount. The decision has been taken a er considering op ons suggested by the Group of Ministers (GoM) set up on the issue and the consulta ons that nance minister Pranab Mukherjee held with leaders of various par es. Par es like Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United) had disrupted proceedings in Parliament for several days during the Budget and Monsoon sessions while pressing for caste census. The Bhara ya Janata Party,
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which was divided ini ally, later decided to support it. The issue even divided the Congress as well as the Union cabinet with some favouring caste census and others opposing it, promp ng the government to set up a GoM to consider all aspects related to such a move. Chidambaram said a suitable legal regime for collec on of data on castes would be formulated in consulta on with the ministry of law and jus ce. There will be an addi onal cost for the exercise which will be assessed at a separate mee ng. The oce of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner would conduct the eld operaons of the caste enumera on. The Central government will cons tute an expert group to classify the caste/tribe returns a er the enumera on is completed. The oce of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner would hand over the details of the castes/tribes returned in the enumera on to the proposed expert group. The last caste-wise census was held in 1931 and such a pracce had been given up as a matter of policy a er Independence. In response to the demands for enumera ng castes other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Census 2011 raised inside Parliament as well as by various groups outside, the ministry of home aairs submi ed a note to the Union cabinet in May 2010 pertaining to this issue.

India on Apr 01, 2010 launched

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India launches Census 2011, the biggest-ever in history

Census 2011,'' the biggest-ever census a empted in the history of mankind enumera ng the country's 1.2 billion popula on and classifying usual residents according to their gender, religion, occupa on and educa on. The massive exercise, to be spread over next 11 months, will mark a milestone as the rst-ever Na onal Popula on Register (NPR) will also be prepared in which all persons aged over 15 years will be photographed and ngerprinted to create a biometric na onal database. With this India will probably become the rst democra c na on in the world which would have got its popula on ngerprinted in a year from now. As the rst ci zen of the country, President Pra bha Devisingh Pa l was the rst person to be listed in the decennial exercise. She appealed to her compatriots to follow her example for the good of the na on.'' The 15th Na onal Census exercise, since 1872, will see over 25 lakh ocials capturing the socio-economiccultural prole of its ci zens. It will cost around Rs. 2,209 crore while the expenditure on NPR will be Rs. 3,539.24 crore. The exercise will also consume more than 11 million tonnes of paper. During the massive exercise, the enumerators for the rst me will collect informa on like owner-

ship of mobile phones, computers, internet, having treated or untreated drinking water facility and usage of banking services. They will also seek addi onal informa on for the crea on of NPR. The government has already said that no informa on will be collected on castes as no caste-based census has ever been conducted in independent India. The second phase, called the Popula on Enumera on phase, will be conducted simultaneously all over the country from February 9 to 28, 2011, and the en re exercise would be completed by March 5, 2011. All 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils, 7,742 towns and more than six lakh villages will be covered.

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The Indian Census is the most credible source of informa on on Demography (Popula on characteris cs), Economic Ac vity, Literacy & Educa on, Housing &

What is Census

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Household Ameni es, Urbanizaon, Fer lity and Mortality, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Language, Religion, Migraon, Disability and many other socio-cultural and demographic data since 1872. Census 2011 will be the 15th Na onal Census of the country. This is the only source of primary data at village, town and ward level. It provides valuable informa on for planning and formula on of polices for Central & State Governments and is widely used by Na onal & Interna onal agencies, scholars, business people, industrialists, and many more. The delimitaon/reserva on of Cons tuencies Parliamentary/Assembly/Panchayats and other Local Bodies is also done on the basis of the demographic data thrown up by the Census. Census is the basis for reviewing the country's progress in the past decade, monitoring the on-going schemes of the Government and most importantly, plan for the future. That is why the slogan of Census 2011 is "Our Census, Our Future".
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The NPR would be a Register of usual residents of the country. The NPR will be a comprehensive iden ty database that would help in be er targe ng of the benets and services under the Government schemes/programmes, improve planning and help strengthen security of the country. This is being done for the rst me in the country. How will both these exercises be conducted? The Census is a statutory exercise conducted under the provisions of the Census Act 1948 and Rules made there under. The NPR is being created under the provisions of the Ci zenship Act and Rules.

Na onal Popula on Register

ing ques ons and lling up Census Forms. The informa on collected about individuals is kept absolutely conden al. In fact this informa on is not accessible even to Courts of law. A er the eld work is over the forms are transported to data processing centres located at 15 ci es across the country. The data processing will be done using sophis cated so ware called Intelligent Character Recogni on So ware (ICR). This technology was pioneered by India in Census 2001 has become the benchmark for Censuses all around the globe. This involves the scanning of the Census Forms at high speed and extrac ng the data automa cally using computer so ware. This revolu onary technology has enabled the processing of the voluminous data in a very short me and saving a huge amount of manual labour and cost.

The Census process involves visi ng each and every household and gathering par culars by ask-

Census Process

Details such as Name, Date of Birth, Sex, Present Address, Permanent Address, Names of Father, Mother and Spouse etc will be gathered by visi ng each and every household. All usual residents will be eligible to be included irrespec ve of their Na onality. Each and every household will be given an Acknowledgement Slip at the me of enumera on. The data will then be entered into computers in the local language of the State as well as in English. Once this database has been created, biometrics such as photograph, 10 ngerprints and probably Iris informa on will be added for all persons aged 15 years and above. This will be done by arranging
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NPR Process

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camps at every village and at the ward level in every town. Each household will be required to bring the Acknowledgement Slip to such camps. Those who miss these camps will be given the opportunity to present themselves at permanent NPR Centres to be set up at the Tehsil/Town level. In the next step, data will be printed out and displayed at prominent places within the village and ward for the public to see. Objec ons will be sought and registered at this stage. Each of these objecons will then be enquired into by the local Revenue Department Ocer and a proper disposal given in wri ng. Persons aggrieved by such order have a right of appeal to the Tehsildar and then to the District Collector. Once this process is over, the lists will be placed in the Gram Sabha in villages and the Ward Commi ee in towns. Claims and Objec ons will be received at this stage also and dealt with in the same manner described above. The Gram Sabha/Ward Commi ee has to give its clearance or objec on within a xed period of me a er which it will be deemed that the lists have been cleared. The lists thus authen cated will then be sent to the Unique Iden ty Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplica on and issue of UID Numbers. All duplicates will be eliminated at this stage based on comparison of biometrics. Unique ID numbers will also be generated for every person. The cleaned database along with the UID Number will then be sent back to the Oce of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (ORG&CCI) and would form the Na onal Populaon Register. As the UID system
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works on the basis of biometric de-duplica on, in the case of persons of age 15 years and above (for whom biometrics is available), the UID Number will be available for each individual. For those below the age of 15 years (for whom biometrics is not available), the UID Number will be linked to the parent or guardian.

The recent approval by the Government of India for caste based census has aroused concerns among poli cal par es as well as social scien sts and ethnographers. For the self-proclaimed modernists such regressive measures are likely to heighten caste consciousness among Indians. While the pragma sts argue that data on caste can help the government to be er target arma ve ac on policies and thereby address caste dierences ra onally. The fact however is the that caste as a social reality in India draws succour from mul ple sources which will remain untouched by either the proposed census or the resultant ocial policies. Caste issues inuence everyday life of Indians in countless ways. For those who think that caste in India is merely a tool of poli cal opportunism or a remnant of ancient Hindu culture, visit to the rural regions of North Kerala during the winter months can be surprising and unnerving. Every year as the winter sets in, rural areas of North Kerala prepare for a unique transforma on of social rela ons. Theyyam is an art form where performers, belonging to lower castes, are be-

Will Caste Census in India Change Anything?

lieved to be incarnated by local dei es and members of higher castes ock to seek their blessing. For three months of the year individuals from the lower castes are elevated to the status of God but have to live as untouchables once the Theyyam season culminates. Numerous rituals and customs like Theyyam con nue to nourish the prac ce of caste differences in India. One only needs to skim through the matrimonial columns in leading English dailies to get a sense that caste is an important considera on even for the modern elite segment of the urban Indian popula on. Stephen P. Rosen in his book Socie es and Military Power: India and its Army discuss the con nuing salience of caste in Indias army. Though many would consider Rosens conclusions somewhat extreme but he does raise several valid concerns. The ba alions in the Indian Army connue to be organised as the Jat, Sikh, Dogra or Rajput regiments. The Poona Pact between Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar in 1932 gran ng reserva on for depressed classes in the provincial legislatures was a precursor for the phenomenal poli cal salience of caste in Indian poli cs. From the Backward Classes Commissions endeavour to create a master list of other backwards classes in 1955 to KHAM (Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims) poli cs of the Congress (I) in the 1980s; from the Mandal Commission uproar in the 1990s to growing mass appeal of Dalit based poli cal pares like the Bahujan Samaj Party, Indias poli cal arena has witnessed countless caste inspired s rrings. No observer of Indian poli cs can ignore the role of
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caste in determining electoral outcomes. Moreover, even before the on-going controversy over the 2010 caste census erupted, the Government of India had been involved in many projects categorizing its popula on along caste lines. Despite cri cisms from historians, poli cal scien sts and anthropologists the Government of India did not abandon the colonial states prac se of dieren a ng people along lines of caste and religion in the People of India projects. According to Susan Bayly, in the late 1990s the Anthropological Survey of India was undertaking massive exercise in caste-based data collec on- the People of India Project- with funding from Planning Commission. The project has used DNA sampling to iden fy dierence between individual castes and tribes. Readers are told that as composite type, the Schduled Castes have rela vely broad noses; chamars says another entry are characterized by a long, narrow head shape and a long moderately broad nasal shape. Such, outrageous dis nc ons based on caste in a report sponsored by a State agency had gone completely unno ced by the modernists and pragma cs involved in recent debate. Though previous censuses have not included ques ons of caste directly, the ethnographic notes in the census reports have contributed much to literature on caste in
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India. According to the pragmasts India cannot simply assume modernity by ignoring caste. They see caste as a form of social stra ca on much like class in Britain or race in the U.S. The U.S. census and job applica ons have a voluntary disclosure segment requiring informa on about the individuals race. Comparing caste with class and race appears incorrect if one realises that unlike other forms of social stra ca ons, caste in India is allegedly sanc oned by the sacred scriptures. Even though the scriptural sanc ty of caste is open to debate many Indians cite the Manusmri and Bhagavad Gita to support arguments in favour of caste. It is much simpler to address dieren a ons based on skin colour or na onality than stra ca ons perceived to be ordained by religious texts. Caste based social prac ces in India go beyond the more visible poli cal and economic dimensions and these subtle aspects are unlikely to be impacted by the enumera on of caste through the census.

The earliest literature 'Rig-Veda' reveals that some kind of populaon count was maintained in during 800-600 BC in India. The celebrated 'Arthashastr' by 'Kaulya' wri en in the 3rd Century BC prescribed the collec on of popula on sta s cs as a measure of state policy for taxa on. It contained a detailed descrip on of methods of conduc ng populaon, economic and agricultural

Brief History of Census

censuses. During the regime of the Mughal king Akbar, the administra ve report 'Ain-e-Akbari' included comprehensive data pertaining to popula on, industry, wealth and many other characteris cs. A systema c and modern popula on census, in its present form was conducted non synchronously between 1865 and 1872 in dierent parts of the country. This eort culmina ng in 1872 has been popularly labeled as the rst popula on census of India However, the rst synchronous census in India was held in 1881. Since then, censuses have been undertaken uninterruptedly once every ten year. The Census of India 2001 was the fourteenth census in the connuous series as reckoned from1872 and the sixth since independence. The gigan c task of census taking was completed in two phases. In the rst phase, known as House -lis ng Operaons, all building and structures, residen al, partly residen al or non- residen al were iden ed and listed and the uses to which they were put recorded. Informaon on houses, household ameni es and assets were also collected. In the second phase, known as Popula on Enumeraon, more detailed informa on on each individual residing in the country, Indian na onal or otherwise, during the enumera on period was collected. At the Census 2001, more than 2 million (or 20 lakh) enumerators were deployed to collect the informa on by visi ng every household. The Indian Census is one of the largest administra ve exercises undertaken in the world.
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