Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has rolled the dice on a caste census. The BJP, his ally in the state government, has been dragging its feet on this issue. Kumar has forced his ally’s hand, at least in Bihar. He called an all-party meeting earlier this week, where it was decided unanimously to carry out a caste-based census.
The last caste-based census was held by the British in 1931. Even the Mandal Commission, which gave reservation to OBCs, had taken caste figures from the 1931 Census. After Independence, the Census avoided caste enumeration. In 2018, Rajnath Singh had announced as the Union home minister that the government would count the OBCs in the 2021 Census. The decision is yet to be implemented.
The Congress-led UPA had in 2011 conducted an exercise that could be termed a caste census. The ministry of rural development then conducted a Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011, through a comprehensive door-to-door enumeration across rural and urban India. The exercise was aimed at collecting information on social and economic indicators in order to better target the government’s programmes and policies.
The data collected through SECC 2011 has, however, not been made public in spite of repeated demand by caste-based parties. In a case filed in the apex court in 2021 by the government of Maharashtra, which was seeking full disclosure of raw data from the socio-economic caste census, the Centre opposed the plea saying that the SECC 2011 was found to be flawed and bound to mislead. The Maharashtra government also sought direction to the Centre to collect data on backward class citizens in the 2021 Census. The Centre opposed this too, saying it was “administratively difficult and cumbersome”.
The BJP is now finding itself in a bind on caste enumeration. It would be difficult for it to take one stand in Bihar and another at the Centre. The 2021 Census was delayed due to Covid and is likely to begin soon. With electorally powerful Marathas, Patidars and Jats, besides many other OBCs, closely watching the BJP’s moves, it would be difficult for the party to oppose a caste census for long.