Caste census is dead. Don’t expect a formal announcement or funeral

The government that initially endorsed the caste census a year ago has now abandoned the project. This unexpected reversal, driven by political calculations, will result in the census idea being quietly forgotten, masked by technical jargon, while the census continues under a different guise. According to a report by Deeptiman Tiwary, the Registrar General of India (RGI), responsible for the census, has decided to employ an open-ended question about caste during the population enumeration phase of the upcoming India Census, instead of presenting a predefined list of caste options.

This seemingly minor change carries significant implications for the entire exercise. The decision to abandon the caste census mirrors a similar incident in 2011, where a parliamentary debate led by Sharad Yadav resulted in an all-party consensus to conduct the census. However, the Brahmanic order managed to undermine the project through two technical decisions.

Firstly, the caste enumeration was separated from the decennial Census of India, to avoid overburdening the process, leading to the creation of a separate Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC). Secondly, caste was recorded through an open-ended question, disregarding the existing SC, ST, and OBC lists. This oversight resulted in 4.7 million caste names, providing a convenient excuse to delay and eventually abandon the publication of caste data.

The Indian Express suggests that we may witness a repeat of this sabotage, this time within the official Census of India 2027. The report confirms that the RGI is fully aware that the newly designed caste census is destined to fail. However, there is an alternative approach to categorizing and classifying the diverse Indian castes and sub-castes.

Instead of asking individuals to self-identify their caste, the process could begin with their caste category (SC/ST/OBC/General) and then allow them to choose from a predefined list of caste names within their category. For the remaining cases where the drop-down menu does not apply, they could be placed under "others" and asked to name their caste.

While a ready-made list of most Indian caste names exists, containing sub-castes and synonyms for nearly three-quarters of the population, the challenge lies in overcoming political will to implement this alternative approach.