Caste based census: Modi government got scared after seeing these figures of Maharashtra, remembering the 'story' of Manmohan government

New Delhi : More and more parties have agreed to conduct caste census in our country, but the central government is trying to avoid it due to the obstacles in conducting it. The government believes that it is not so easy to conduct it due to the large number of castes divided on the basis of caste and the data related to it. The efforts made earlier regarding the caste system of the country have not got any special success. Due to the caste diversity in our country, this decision is not so easy and it is difficult to say how positive the results of the census will be.

You will remember that after 1931, Manmohan Singh's government had conducted social, economic and caste census along with census in 2011, but could not muster the courage to make its data public. Not only this, the Modi government also said in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court that releasing the caste census data is not easy. There are many challenges regarding this. The Modi government said that the biggest obstacle in releasing the caste census data is the increased number of castes, which is increasing indiscriminately.

1931 vs 2011
If we look at the figures, a total of 40,147 castes were registered in the country in the 1931 census. On this basis, the Mandal Commission prepared its report in 1980 to provide reservation benefits to backward castes. In 1991, the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government also implemented it, but in the 2011 census, the number of castes increased to 46.80 lakh. For this reason, the figures of the 2011 caste census were not made public.

The government cited Maharashtra

However, the central government presented some statistics related to Maharashtra in the Supreme Court which were shocking. According to the figures presented by the government in the Supreme Court, there are 4.28 lakh castes in the 10.3 crore population of Maharashtra. 99% of these castes are such whose population was less than 100. Whereas the population of 2440 castes is being said to be 8.82 lakh. Apart from this, 1.17 crore i.e. about 11% people said that they do not have any caste. In such a situation, which caste should such a large population be counted in.. this is a big challenge for the government.

Well, if we look at the arguments of the politicians who are said to be politically sensitive and try to understand the demand for caste census, then it becomes clear that this is a demand made purely for political gain, so that people can once again unite on the basis of caste and go in favor of a party. For the same political gain, no political party is able to openly oppose it, because it knows that if it opposes, it can be politically harmful.

Lalu was silent at that time
Perhaps this was the reason that despite the United Progressive Alliance government, Lalu-led Rashtriya Janata Dal could not put any pressure on the government to release the data of the 2011 caste census before 2014. The caste census conducted in the form of caste survey in Bihar has been limited to only 214 castes. People were given the option to choose one of these 214 castes, but in the caste census conducted along with the general census, people cannot be given limited options.

People should get this option
People say that every citizen should be given the right to choose his caste voluntarily. That is why it is being considered a big challenge. In this matter, a senior official associated with the census said that under the rules of the census, people will have to be given the freedom to reveal their caste, only then the correct data will come out. Otherwise, this effort made by the government of the country will once again prove to be futile and the correct data of castes will not be revealed.