‘Supreme’ order on caste census, 2011 socio-economic backwardness data will not be public
The socio-economic backwardness figures revealed in the 2011 Census will not be made public. The Supreme Court has accepted the Centre’s argument in this regard. The Center had said that caste census was not conducted in 2011 to know the number of OBCs. A survey was conducted to know the backwardness of the families. But that figure is flawed. Not worth using.
The Supreme Court had filed a petition on this issue by the Maharashtra government. The state government had demanded to make this data public for giving OBC reservation in local elections. But the court has rejected the petition of the state government. An important point is also that the affidavit of the Center has been accepted by the court, in which it has been said that caste census will not be conducted even in 2022.
The Union Social Justice Ministry had said in a written reply filed in the court that it would not be practical to calculate the backward castes. The Center had told that the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) which was done in 2011 cannot be called the calculation of OBC.
The ministry said that the purpose of the SECC of 2011 was to assess the backwardness of the families. On the basis of this, when an attempt was made to estimate the caste population, it was found that people have registered lakhs of castes. Whereas, there are only a few thousand castes in the OBC list of the Center and the states. People also registered their gotra, sub-caste etc. Thus the number of castes could not be estimated.
It was told in the affidavit that there is such a difference in the spelling of castes that it is difficult to ascertain who is OBC and who is not. Giving an example from Maharashtra itself, the government said that there are Powars OBCs, but not Pawars. In the same village or area, people have registered their caste spelling differently. In many places, surveyors have written different spellings. In such a situation, the exercise of extracting caste data on the basis of this survey proved to be useless.
The central government had also made it clear that it would not get the OBC castes counted in the census. In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the Center has said that such a census is not practical. This policy is in force in the country since 1951. This time also the government has decided to continue with it. Under the already existing policy, this time also only Scheduled Castes, Tribes, Religious and Linguistic groups will be counted.
Now the Supreme Court, while rejecting the petition of the Maharashtra government, has said that if it wants to give reservation to OBCs in Panchayat elections, then it will have to collect local data of backwardness. The court has said that the state government has constituted a commission on its behalf for this purpose. If she wants, she can ask the commission to submit the report soon.
