Is a caste census desirable?
The HinduAt the recently concluded Parliament session, there was a demand to lift the 50% cap on reservation imposed by the Supreme Court through the legislative route. They argue that a Socio-Economic Caste Census is the only way to make a case to breach the 50% cap on reservation and rationalise the reservation matrix in the country. Many have argued that a Socio-Economic Caste Census would be the best way to rationalise reservation based on data and make a strong case for breaching this gap. And the purpose of a caste census is not merely geared to the reservation issue; a caste census would actually bring to the fore the large number of issues that any democratic country needs to attend to, particularly the number of people who are at the margins, or who are deprived, or the kind of occupations they pursue, or the kind of hold that institutions like caste have on them. However, like the UPA government escaped by saying that a caste census would be different from the general census and called for only certain issues to be enumerated, this dispensation also might actually play the same game and begin to disconnect the caste census from the general census.