1. A precise caste census is difficult, but the data will be useful to drive social policy
Context: The issue of conducting a Socio-Economic Caste Census(SECC) which enumerates the caste identities of the citizens.
About Census exercise in India:
Importance of a Census:
1. Justified affirmative actions: it will be useful to establish statistical justification for preserving caste-based affirmative action programmes. It may also be a legal imperative, considering that courts want ‘quantifiable data’ to support the existing levels of reservation.
2. An important Socio-anthropological study: Important in its inclusion of broader caste information as a necessity to capture contemporary Indian society and to understand and remedy inequalities. For example, the SECC 2011 data contained 46 lakh different caste names, and if sub-castes were considered, the ultimate number may be exponentially high.
3. Captures educational status: Since Independence, aggregated Census data on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on certain parameters such as education have been collected.
4. Captures economic inequalities objectively: It has the potential to allow for a mapping of inequalities at a broader level. For example, regional inequality, urban-rural divide, caste & religion wise distribution etc.
5. Used for Planning: It helps the government in understanding the development deficits in the society and to helps in mending them. For example identifying the districts with worst sex ratio.
6. Captures the population trends: Such as population growth, migrations, family structure etc. This helps the sociological studies and helps the government planning accordingly.
7. Administrative uses: for example, It forms a preliminary background for a delimitation exercise.
Limitations of the Census:
1. Against Caste-less society: The idea of a national caste census might be abhorrent when the stated policy is to strive for a casteless society.
2. Leads to Vote-bank politics: Political parties with their base in particular social groups may find a caste enumeration useful, if their favoured groups are established as dominant in specific geographies; or they may find the outcome inconvenient, if the precise count turns out to be lower and has a negative bearing on perceptions about their electoral importance.
3. Not comprehensive: It is not quite useful enough for a detailed and comprehensive understanding of a complex society, which can be captured better with randomized control trials.
4. Administratively difficult and cumbersome: It consumes a lot of time and effort - SECC-2011 took years to complete;
5. Time Lag: Nearly a decade after the SECC for instance, a sizeable amount of data remains unreleased.
6. Solidifies Identities: It may help solidify or harden identities. Many critics view it as a step against a casteless society.
7. Inaccurate: The Government has said data from the 2011 SECC were not acted upon because of “several infirmities” that rendered them unusable. Even in the Censuses up to 1931, when caste details were collected, they were wanting in completeness and accuracy.
8. There are alternatives: A preliminary socio-anthropological study can be done at the State and district levels to establish all sects and sub-castes present in the population. These can be tabulated under caste names that have wider recognition based on synonymity and equivalence among the appellations that people use to denote themselves.
Government's Stance: In this backdrop, the Union government has asserted in the Supreme Court that a census of the backward castes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome”. There are two components to the Government’s stand.
1. It asserts that it is a policy decision not to have caste as part of the regular census and that, administratively, the enumeration would be rendered so complex that it may jeopardise the decennial census itself.
2. It cites the difficulties and complexities inherent in getting an accurate count of castes, given the mind-boggling numbers of castes and sub-castes, with phonetic variations and similarities, that people returned as their caste in the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) conducted in 2011.
Way Forward: However, these limitations need not mean that an enumeration of the social groups in the country is impossible. A caste census need not necessarily mean caste in the census. Is ultimate goal is not for political or electoral purposes, but for equity in distribution of opportunities. A caste census may not sit well with the goal of a casteless society, but it may serve, in the interim, as a useful, even if not entirely flawless, means of addressing inequities in society.
Expected Question: Does the Socio-economic Caste census fit well with the notion of a casteless society? Critically analyse (250 words)
1. Observers in New Delhi profess mixed feelings — some joy for Australia, but more commiseration with France
Context: The announcement AUKUS — a new security pact between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
About AUKUS:
Impact on India: For observers in India, the AUKUS saga evokes mixed feelings.
Many are happy:
New Delhi is uncomfortable
The technology pursuit
Conclusion - Indian Response:
Expected Question: How does the AUKUS alliance impact India's relation with the countries involved? (250 Words)