look news india
New Delhi: Despite the consensus among most parties on conducting caste census, it will not be easy for the central government to conduct it and release its data. Since 1931, the Manmohan Singh government had also conducted the socio-economic caste census along with the 2011 census, but could not muster the courage to make its data public. Not only this, the Modi government has also expressed its inability to release the caste census data in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. The biggest obstacle in releasing the caste census data is believed to be the huge increase in the number of castes.
In fact, in the 1931 census, a total of 4,147 castes were registered in the country. On this basis, the Mandal Commission gave its report in 1980 on giving the benefit of reservation to backward castes. It was also implemented by the VP Singh government in 1991, but in the 2011 census, the number of castes reached above 46.80 lakh. Although the figures of the 2011 caste census were not made public, the central government gave some figures related to Maharashtra in the Supreme Court which are shocking. According to this, in 2011, 4.28 lakh castes were registered in the population of 10.3 crore in Maharashtra. Of these, 99 percent castes were such whose population was less than 100, while the population of 2,440 castes was 8.82 lakh. The surprising thing is that out of these, 1.17 crore i.e. about 11 percent people said that they do not have any caste.
Although no party is able to muster the courage to oppose the politically sensitive demand for caste census, the parties demanding it also know the real truth. Perhaps this is the reason why despite being with the UPA government, RJD did not insist on releasing the data of 2011 caste census before 2014. According to the recent caste survey in Bihar, the number of castes has come down to 214. People were given the option to choose one of these 214 castes, but people could not be given limited options in the caste census like in the general census. A senior official said that under the census rules, people have to be given the freedom to declare their caste. He said that due to this, the number of castes in the country in 2011 can cross 46.80 lakh. In the last decade and a half, the aspirations of small groups have increased and they can try to establish themselves as a particular caste.
