Context & Recent Developments
- Union Cabinet (2025) has approved caste enumeration in the upcoming Census under Article 246 (Union list).
- First national caste enumeration since 1931 — overdue despite growing demand for data-driven policies.
- Bihar (2023) and Telangana (2025) have already conducted caste surveys — showing OBC/BC majorities and deep marginalisation.
Relevance : GS 2(Social Issues)
Key Findings from State Caste Surveys
- Bihar (2023):
- OBC + EBC = 63% of population.
- SC = 19.65%, ST = 1.68%, General = 15.52%.
- 34% of families live on less than ₹200/day.
- 44% of SC households below that line — highlights economic-caste overlap.
- Telangana (2025):
- BC = 56.33%, including BC Muslims (10.08%).
- Underrepresentation:
- Only 4% professors and 6% associate professors in 45 Central Universities are OBCs.
- General category holds 85% of these posts — despite legal reservation framework (2019 Teachers’ Cadre Act).
What is a Social Management Approach?
- Bottom-up model starting with granular, caste-disaggregated data.
- Contrasts with top-down welfare that assumes uniform solutions for all.
- Sees caste as a developmental determinant, not a stigma — enabling tailored policy design.
- Used effectively by Tamil Nadu & Karnataka to refine reservation, scholarships, and governance models.
Why a National Caste Census Matters
- Enables targeted budgeting and better allocation of welfare resources.
- Helps conduct diversity audits in government, education, and private sectors.
- Enhances transparency and civil society’s ability to track policy outcomes across caste lines.
- Could assess effectiveness of schemes like PM Awas Yojana, Skill India, etc., across social groups.
Counterarguments & Rebuttals
- Criticism: Caste census may deepen divisions and undermine unity.
- Rebuttal:
- Caste already shapes access to opportunity, wealth, and power.
- Ignoring caste does not erase inequalities — it obscures them.
- Like U.S. (race), Brazil (race/language), South Africa (ethnicity), India too needs identity-based data for equity.
- Census would help expose elite capture within caste groups and empower truly disadvantaged subgroups.
Democratic Accountability & Social Justice
- Caste census = tool for transparent governance and citizen empowerment.
- Can lead to:
- More accurate affirmative action.
- Addressing intra-caste inequalities.
- Enhancing land rights, housing, labour protections, and justice for marginalised communities.
- A step towards constitutional literacy and participatory democracy.
