Why SECC data different then?

With an approved cost of Rs 4,893.60 crore, the SECC was conducted by the Ministry of Rural Development in rural areas and the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation in urban areas. The SECC data excluding caste data was finalised and published by the two ministries in 2016.

The raw caste data was handed over to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which formed an Expert Group under former NITI Aayog Vice-Chairperson Arvind Pangaria for classification and categorisation of data. It is not clear whether it submitted its report; no such report has been made public.

The report of a Parliamentary Committee on Rural Development presented to the Lok Sabha Speaker on August 31, 2016, noted about SECC: “The data has been examined and 98.87 per cent data on individuals’ caste and religion is error free. ORGI has noted incidence of errors in respect of 1,34,77,030 individuals out of total SECC population of 118,64,03,770. States have been advised to take corrective measures.”

This time, the demand is that castes be enumerated as part of Census 2021 itself.

The Census provides a portrait of the Indian population, while the SECC is a tool to identify beneficiaries of state support.

Since the Census falls under the Census Act of 1948, all data are considered confidential, whereas according to the SECC website, “all the personal information given in the SECC is open for use by Government departments to grant and/or restrict benefits to households.”

When Mandal Commission was set up for SEBC?

In 1979, it was the Morarji Desai government which set up the Mandal Commission to identify socially or educationally backward classes to address caste discrimination. It was chaired by B.P. Mandal, who was once the Bihar chief minister. The Commission recommended that members of OBCs be given 27 per cent reservations for jobs under the Central government and public sector undertakings. This would take the total number of reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to 49 per cent.

OBC Creamy layer

To ensure that benefits of the recommendations of the Mandal Commission percolated down to the most backward communities, the creamy layer criteria was invoked in the popularly known Supreme Court ruling called the ‘Indira Sawhney Judgment’. It was delivered by the nine-judge bench on the Mandal Commission report in November 1992.

Under the present rules, a household with an annual income of Rs 8 lakh or above would be classified as belonging to the ‘creamy layer’ among OBCs and therefore, would not be eligible for reservations. However, it was reported that the Modi government had proposed to increase the ceiling for the creamy layer distinction from Rs 8 lakh per annum to Rs 12 lakh per annum. In July 2020, the National Commission for Backward Classes demanded that the income ceiling be doubled to Rs 16 lakh per annum.

Speaking about the distinction of the creamy layer, that a certain level needs to be there to ensure that benefits percolate down to the most backward classes as well. “Currently, even the caste census has not come out. Therefore everyone is at present operating in the dark

Where did the UPA stand on this?

In 2010, then Law Minister Veerappa Moily wrote to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for collection of caste/community data in Census 2011. On March 1, 2011, during a short-duration discussion in Lok Sabha, Home Minister P Chidambaram spoke of several “vexed questions”: “There is a Central list of OBCs and State-specific list of OBCs. Some States do not have a list of OBCs; some States have a list of OBCs and a sub-set called Most Backward Classes. The Registrar General has also pointed out that there are certain open-ended categories in the lists such as orphans and destitute children. Names of some castes are found in both the list of Scheduled Castes and list of OBCs. Scheduled Castes converted to Christianity or Islam are also treated differently in different States. The status of a migrant from one State to another and the status of children of inter-caste marriage, in terms of caste classification, are also vexed questions.”

Amid uproarious scenes, the then Prime Minister said: “I assure you that the Cabinet will take a decision shortly.” Later, a Group of Ministers was constituted under Finance Minister the late Pranab Mukherjee. After several rounds of deliberations, the UPA government decided to go for a full-fledged Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC).

Current Government Stand:

The Union of India after Independence, decided as a matter of policy not to enumerate caste wise population other than SCs and STs.”

But on August 31, 2018, following a meeting chaired by then Home Minister Rajnath Singh that reviewed preparations for Census 2021, the Press Information Bureau stated in a statement: “It is also envisaged to collect data on OBC for the first time.”

When The Indian Express filed an RTI request asking for the minutes of the meeting, the Office of Registrar General of India (ORGI) responded: “Records of deliberations in ORGI prior to MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) announcement on August 31, 2018 to collect data on OBC is not maintained. There was not issued any minutes of the meeting.”

Who did Mandal commission benefit?

Over two decades after its implementation, experts say gross inequity continues to exist in how the benefits of the reservations are enjoyed by different communities within the OBC.

A parliamentary panel on the Welfare of OBCs had in its February 2019 report noted that in spite of four revisions of the income criteria since 1997, the 27 per cent vacancies reserved in favour of OBCs were not being filled up. The committee said the data received from 78 ministries and departments regarding representation of OBCs in the posts and services of the central government as on 1 March 2016 reflected poor OBC occupancy levels in central government ministries.

According to this government data, of the 32.58 lakh government employees (which includes Group A, B, C), the number of those from OBCs are 7 lakh — 21 per cent of the quota as against 27 per cent. The maximum number of OBCs — 6.4 lakh or 22.65 per cent — are employed in Group C, which comprises mainly the safai karamcharis, i.e., the sanitation department staff.

To address these anomalies, the Narendra Modi government constituted a four-member commission headed by retired Delhi High Court Chief Justice G. Rohini in October 2017. The committee’s mandate was to look into the issue of sub categorisation within OBCs.

Their mandate also included looking into how the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in jobs and education was being implemented and if all categories of OBCs were benefitting from it.

The Rohini Commission, as it came to be known, found that out of almost 6,000 castes and communities in the OBCs, only 40 such communities had gotten 50 per cent of reservation benefits for admission in central educational institutions and recruitment to the civil services. The panel further found that close to 20 per cent of OBC communities did not get a quota benefit from 2014 to 2018.

The commission’s tenure was recently extended until January 2021 to complete its study.

The Mandal Commission recommendations helped the economically better positioned OBCs more than the most backward castes. However, it was noted that one can only truly benefit from the Mandal Commission recommendations when they manage to climb out of poverty.

“It is important to realise that it is not a social security scheme or a giveaway. Under the UPA (both I and II), many people managed to climb out of poverty and therefore that has been capitalised by the Modi government.”

How often has the demand for a caste census been made?

It comes up before almost every Census, as records of debates and questions raised in Parliament show. The demand usually come from among those belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and other deprived sections, while sections from the upper castes oppose the idea.

Besides Nitish Kumar, Manjhi and Athawale, such demands in recent days have come from BJP national secretary Pankaja Munde, and the Maharashtra Assembly which passed a resolution on January 8 urging the Centre to hold a caste-based Census in 2021.

On April 1, the constitutional body National Commission for Backward Classes urged the government to collect data on the population of OBCs “as part of Census of India 2021 exercise”, as reported by The Indian Express.

A writ petition seeking caste enumeration, filed by one G Mallesh Yadav of Hyderabad, is pending in the Supreme Court, which issued notices on this on February 26 this year.