The Centre’s decision to withhold caste-based census data from the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census has created ripples in political circles. The regional chieftains, particularly those facing state elections, are the ones most vocal about the need to release the data. Ironically, the Communists, who quote Marx to stress there is no such thing as caste, are equally strident in demanding the release of the caste data on the grounds that it would help in framing policies for the affirmative action promised by various governments in independent India’s history but not uniformly delivered.
The first ever caste census since 1931 has projected such a grim picture of rural India that it is clear the poor have stayed poor despite the efforts made based on caste to uplift the historically disadvantaged groups of people. In all its affirmative action in the form of reservation in education and jobs, India made a major departure from Jawaharlal Nehru’s principle of “Indianness” that was aimed at eliminating casteism. But it is obvious that while the lot of the backward classes has been lifted over the years, it is the Scheduled Tribes which have remained the poorest of the poor.
If the release of the caste data can help lift people out of poverty, there is no reason why the government should fight shy of publicising the facts. They might as well let the figures out of the bag and then weather the storm that would inevitably arise because it is our belief that political parties are out to use caste only as a vote-catcher and not as a genuine route to social transformation through empirical data.
