Moily wanted caste census,Registrar General said no

Much before the controversial caste-based census issue was referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) last week,the Office of the Registrar General (ORG) which conducts the Census....

Much before the controversial caste-based census issue was referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) last week,the Office of the Registrar General (ORG) which conducts the Census,had put on record its opposition to it last year. The ORG had argued that such an initiative would accord legal validity to caste,encourage discrimination and unrest in society and jeopardise the integrity of the population count.

The ORG made these observations to Law Minister Veerappa Moily last year after the latter wrote to the Prime Minister,advocating collection of caste/community wise data in Census 2011. The Law Minister had cited the absence of any comprehensive survey of caste particulars that could help the government at the Centre and the states to formulate policies aimed at improving living standards of backward classes while favouring such an exercise. Moilys letter to the PM,dated August 6,further argued that caste details were collected until the 1941 census and had been a rich source of information on the composition of caste and tribe in Indian society.

The Registrar General,to whom the letter was forwarded by the Prime Minister,however,expressed strong reservations on revisiting the issue of caste-based counting. In fact,it pointed out that the issue had been raised on earlier occasions during the 1981 census,by the National Advisory Council (NAC) in 2005,by the standing committee of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in July 2006 and by the Sachar committee in December 2006. Every time,the ORG opinion was clearly against any such initiative.

Caste enumeration was given up as a matter of policy from the 1951 census onwards. The decision to discourage community distinction based on caste was in keeping with the spirit of the secular state enshrined in the Preamble, the ORG offered. The Registrar General contended that inclusion of a question on caste in an official exercise may be interpreted to mean that caste identification has got official sanction.

However,the Registrar General conceded that there is a necessity to have population details of OBCs for better formulation of policies. While not denying the fact,it is essential to point out that population census should not be made the vehicle for collection of these details, it said.