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The Home Ministry has opposed a caste-based census - now or in future - saying that it's a "sensitive issue" fraught with numerous hindrances."Population census is not the ideal instrument for collection of details on caste. The operational difficulties are so many that there is a grave danger that the basic integrity of the census data may be compromised and the fundamental population count itself could get distorted," the ministry has told the Cabinet. It has said that unlike the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes which have one Central list, the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) have two lists - one Central and the other for state - with open categories that would lead to subjectivity while recording the castes. Besides putting the enumerator through a tedious process of referring to several lists, "the subjective decision of the enumerators may not only adversely affect the census process but also completeness and accuracy of the data on OBCs," it said."Moreover, specific castes names among Christians and Muslims are also listed as OBCs. When in principle, Islam and Christianity do not believe in caste system, asking caste question would hurt the sentiment of the informant that may eventually hamper the very census-taking process," it said.However, its biggest fear was that such a census could result in "motivated returns through organised and surreptitious means to project higher numbers of a particular caste". "In case of OBC census, motivated returns are expected to be very high especially because there is no stigma attached to the OBCs as opposed to SCs and STs. As there would be no control figures that can be used as benchmark, the fear that the basic demographic figures could be compromised is real," it said.Interestingly, OBC leaders of the RJD, SP, JD(U) were in the forefront on Monday raising the issue of enumerating backward classes as part of the census. Their demand brought the Lok Sabha to a standstill and took the UPA by surprise as it had considered Census 2011 as settled after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last November declined a similar demand by Law Minister Veerappa Moily.Besides banking on the founding fathers' decision to discourage community distinction based on castes, last done in 1931 under the British, the Home Ministry has pointed out that the NDA government too had withdrawn a Cabinet proposal from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment to conduct a population count of OBCs along with 2001 Census. It said the first phase of Houselisting and Housing Censushad already started in April and that the second phase of population enumeration - to be conducted in February next year - was linked and could not be looked in isolation.Citing observation of the Supreme Court and the high courts of Karnataka and Madras against caste-based census, it said past Census Commissioners were of the opinion that caste should not be canvassed and tabulated as part of the census. The ministry has suggested that a comprehensive survey by the National Commission of Backward Classes and or the state Commissions of Backward Classes could generate reasonably authentic and reliable data on castes other than SCs and STs.
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