The Supreme Court of India upheld the Patna High Court order on giving consent to the Bihar government for a caste-based survey on August 21, 2023. The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions by a group of individuals and organisations challenging the Patna High Court order. The Centre, in return, filed an affidavit on August 28, 2023, stating that “no other body is entitled to conduct the exercise of either census or any action akin to census”. The affidavit also stated that the Centre is “committed to take all affirmative actions for the upliftment of SCs/STs/SEBCs and OBCs in accordance with the Constitution and the applicable law”. The Bihar government argued that its action is not strictly a census but only a survey, done for the welfare of its people. The home ministry said the affidavit was only meant to state the position in law before the top court.
The Chief Minister of Bihar, on August 25, 2023, stated that the caste-based survey in the state has been completed and the state government would soon make the data public. The Supreme Court also refused the Centre’s plea to stay the uploading of data collected in the recently concluded Bihar caste-based survey. The Centre claimed that the Bihar government had violated the fundamental right to privacy by compelling people to reveal their castes.
The Caste-Based Survey in Bihar
The Bihar government started a two-phase caste survey on January 7, 2023 for collecting detailed information on socio-economic conditions of the people, so that the government could create better policies for the disadvantaged groups. The survey was to record the economic status of the families alongside their caste. The survey collected the socio-economic data for a population of 12.70 crore in 38 districts of Bihar. During the first phase of the survey from January 7 to 12, 2023, the house-listing exercise was carried out.
The second phase of data collection began on April 15, 2023, and was to be completed by May 15, 2023. In the meantime, on May 4, 2023, the Patna High Court issued an interim stay on the survey stating that the state government does not have the legal authority to conduct it since it is a census.
Following the stay order, the Bihar government filed a petition seeking an early hearing of the case, which was dismissed by the Patna High Court. Eventually, the Bihar government approached the SC to lift the stay. However, on May 18, 2023, the SC also rejected the relief observing that the Patna High Court had kept the matter for hearing on July 3, 2023.
The hearing was continuously done between July 3 and 7, 2023 by the Patna High Court Bench under Chief Justice, K.V. Chandran. On August 1, 2023, the Patna High Court allowed the state government to continue with the survey after observing that the action of the state government was valid. The verdict further stated that it was initiated with due competence and in the furtherance of a compelling public interest.
On August 2, 2023, the Bihar government resumed their work on the second phase of the survey based on data related to castes, sub-castes, and religions of all people. On August 25, 2023, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar, said that the caste-based survey had been completed, the data was being compiled, and the cumulative data would soon be made public but the individual data shall be protected.
Why a Caste-Based Census
Many marginalised groups have been demanding for a caste-based census to accurately understand the economic well-being of the marginalised communities. The earlier censuses were based on data only on scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST), apart from the ‘general’ category. At present, there is a demand to include the other backward classes (OBCs) as well for understanding the socio-economic status of various castes and updated OBC figures.
The Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 was expected to provide a comprehensive data on the castes existing in India. In 2015, the poverty and deprivation data were retrieved from the SECC which revealed that there are about 4.6 million caste names in India, including gotra, surnames, phonetic variations, etc. This made the results impossible to interpret. Many political parties have been supporting the caste-based census. However, the central government needs more time to conduct it. Though the NDA government agreed for a caste census in 2018, it rejected in 2021 the demand for another SECC by the Maharashtra government citing policy issues and administrative challenges.
Balanced policies for delivering welfare schemes and ensuring political representation are needed for providing social justice and curtailing inequality. However, the push for a caste census is being seen as an electoral strategy.
Benefits of a Caste-Based Census
According to some scholars, the caste-based census could play a constructive role in official statistical records. The idea behind the caste-based census is to identify and eradicate caste, caste-based discrimination, caste-based distribution of wealth, and socio-cultural inequalities generated by caste. So, it is essential to understand its expansiveness. Scholars feel that official statistical records would help in reflecting the reality and would do away with the disequilibrium around the non-dominant castes within the OBCs. Ultimately, a substantial data reflecting the social reality of India’s lesser-known precarious groups would be revealed in the open.
A caste-based census would throw light on economic status and other caste-related information about every Indian family. This data would have information about both rural and urban areas which would help the government authorities define deprivation indicators and also chart inequalities at a broader level. Policy making could be done in a better way with this data on disadvantaged and privileged sections of the society. According to many political parties, the current reservation based on the last census held in 1931 does not reflect the correct numbers. So, the caste-based census would also help the government authorities work for the upliftment of various sections of the society.
The caste-based census data would be instrumental in understanding the achievements and shortcomings of the reservation policies by bringing the massive gap between economic and social capital acquisition within and between the general category as well as the reserved category. It would also aid to identify the effectiveness and efficiency of the parameters of socio-economic and educational backwardness for the OBCs.
In 2015, the Karnataka government, too, had conducted a caste survey. However, it did not release the data.
Provision for Caste-Based Census in the Constitution
Article 340 of the Indian Constitution gives authority to the government for appointing a commission for investigating the conditions of the socially and economically backward classes (SEBCs) and also the struggles they have to face in their work. The commission has been assigned to make recommendations to the Centre or to any state for the elimination of such hassles for the betterment of the conditions of the SEBCs.
Resistance to Caste Census
According to critics, caste-based census may lead to demand for more reservation in jobs and educational institutions from various communities. In 1979, the Mandal Commission was set up to study about the SEBCs. The commission had granted reservation to 27 per cent of jobs under the central government and public sector undertakings. There was a total of 49 per cent reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs. The Supreme Court had set the limit of reservation to 50 per cent through the Indra Sawhney judgment. However, there are demands to remove this cap.
Way Forward
The decennial census was due in 2021. However, it has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Centre has still not made it clear whether it would include caste in the next census. Politically, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been opposing caste census as it would pose a challenge to its Hindutva campaign ahead of the 2024 General Elections. However, the opposition parties including the Indian National Congress has been demanding for the release of the caste data, collected in 2011 census and remove the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation and conduct a caste census.
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