NEW DELHI: As the Centre is set to conduct a caste census along with the Census in 2027, Dr J K Bajaj, a member of the Rohini Commission, told TNIE that unless the caste enumeration is carried out comprehensively, it wouldn’t yield any results like the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) by the UPA government in 2011.
Bajaj was one of four members of the commission led by former Delhi High Court chief justice G. Rohini, which was tasked with the sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and ensuring equitable redistribution of quota benefits among all sub-communities.
Though the Commission submitted its report — after getting 14 extensions — to President Droupadi Murmu on 31 July 2023, the government told the Lok Sabha during the recently concluded Monsoon session that the ministry is yet to receive it.
When asked about the delay in implementation of the report, Bajaj said that one of the terms of reference of the commission was to look into the list of castes and remove the duplication and spelling issues. “Our report certainly will be useful for the census because first thing they need is to make a comprehensive list of castes. A clean list of castes will be useful for the census exercise,” he said, adding that the sub-categorisation of OBCs is a different aspect.
“The caste census will help us understand which caste is getting what and their status in terms of education and economic status. We were always struggling to get data while we were in the commission. But this will give us more data on reservations in jobs and education,” he said.
Emphasising the need to have a comprehensive list of castes, Bajaj said that the 2011 Socio-Economic Caste Census went to waste because of the lack of a properly drawn list of castes.
“The Commission did not refer to the SECC data, as the government told the Supreme Court that the data does not exist. If you want to do a good caste census, the first condition is that we make a comprehensive list not only of what the census already has, but also of the OBCs. The OBC castes need to be reconciled and cleaned up, and the castes for which no lists are available except those one by the British,” he said, adding that otherwise, the 2027 census data will be less useful than the 2011 data.
When asked about the implementation of the commission report, he said, “We have done our work. The rest is up to the government, and it is a political decision”.
In its recommendations, the commission is learnt to have adopted a balanced approach to ensure fair distribution of reservation benefits among various castes.