Stand-alone caste headcount now a certainty
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COMMENTS 
The government has decided to include caste in the census. Cabinet is expected to endorse the decision shortly
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is likely to take a formal decision on the issue of caste enumeration in Census 2010 when the deliberations of a group of ministers (GoM) are placed before the Union Cabinet on September 2, 2010.
In the Lok Sabha, leader of the House and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the GoM had already approved inclusion of caste in the census, but as it was not an empowered GoM the decision would have to be approved by Cabinet. “The political parties had supported the idea of including caste in the census and there was no need for any ‘apprehensions’ over the issue.”
The GoM has decided that the caste census be carried out during house-to-house enumeration; biometric and other exercises could be taken up simultaneously. It was now only a formality, the minister said. The government believes that if the headcount were done at an earlier stage, Census 2010 would be delayed by as much as a year, sources said.
Some argue, however, that if the headcount is done at the biometric stage, it will never be completed; they cite the example of election cards which are yet to cover the entire population.
There remain two opinions on caste enumeration: some believe it should be done at the NPR stage so that those who analyse the data later can correlate it to the educational and economic status of the individuals enumerated and thereby draw up a more accurate demographic picture of the country, which would help in the government’s social welfare interventions. Others feel that caste enumeration has no place in 21st-century India, and that it is being done purely on account of political pressure. All that we will get at the end is a set of numbers.
Source: The Hindu, August 31, 2010
The Hindustan Times, August 31, 2010