The president of the Congress of the Bihar Congress, Rajesh Ram, with supporters, pours milk in the bust of Dr. Br ambedkar in Patna on Thursday, while celebrating the decision of the Census Census Center | Photo credit: ANI
By achieving a political surprise, the NDA government led by BJP has announced the inclusion of caste enumeration in the National Census. The announcement demolishes the carefully built caste table of the opposition in Bihar in survey. In truth, the ‘caste census’ table, a case of the BJP course correcting the 2024 parliamentary elections when Congress and its ally, the Samajwadi party, surpassed it in Uttar Pradesh. By juxtaposing the census with the Constitution, the opposition alliance ended up wearing the Hindutva tone of the BJP and consolidated the OBC and Dalit population in their favor. The BJP wishes to avoid repetition in Bihar.
While all this hits political cynicism, the most important question is: What does the government want to achieve different castes? A caste census can provide crucial data to quantify socioeconomic shoots, identify groups of marginalized castes and frame welfare policies. However, the reality is that the thesis of high objectives are almost never the motivation for politicians to enclose any political decision to list the caste. Such efforts end up stirring different groups of castes to require the expansion of the reserve for OBCs beyond the 50 percent ceiling imposed by the Supreme Court in the case of Indra Sawhney.
It is instructive to see how caste surveys in Karnataka, Telangana and Bihar have developed. The socioeconomic and educational survey in Karnataka, presented in February 2024, has created tensions with three groups of dominant castes-vocalas, lingayats and Brahmins, as they have told. The report has not yet been officially accepted as a result of dissensions within the state government. It is difficult to say white that will lead to a constructive policy. In Telangana, a similar survey has led the State to increase OBC quotas to 42 percent (23 percent) in education, employment and political organizations. Bihar has announced an increase in reserve quotas for SC, STS, OBC and EBC, which increases total 50 percent installments to 75 percent.
A key question is whether quotas alone can correct socioeconomic shoots. Tamil Nadu, with a 69 percent reserve, has had a good performance in its social development rates by focusing on universal well -being, in addition to making an affirmative action. However, Bihar is well below the national average on education and health indicators. This is because the social justice champions in Bihar and UP have simply focused on the reserve for decades, neglecting social development. Bihar Prime Minister Nithis Kumar had previously refused to act on a comprehensive action report on a common school system, prepared by former Foreign Secretary Muskunde Dubey in 2007. Telangana, a backward region and a new state, should not repeat these fogatos. Meanwhile, the center needs to ensure that social justice goes beyond affirmative action and results in policies that address social inequalities.
Posted on May 1, 2025
