HT Explainer: Why the 2011 caste data was not made public?

The caste-wise population other than that of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) has not been enumerated in the census since independence. In 2011, three government departments undertook a tedious exercise for the first-ever Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC). As the clamour for a caste census grows, here is all you need to know about the SECC and what happened to the data collected:

Why was SECC conducted?

It was conducted as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government faced the question of deciding the poverty level as it tried to expand its social welfare net for the poor. The government came up with the idea of collecting socio-economic and caste data. The unique census had a set of parameters for automatic inclusion or exclusion from the poverty list. A family owning a car or a concrete house with three rooms would automatically be excluded. Single mothers, manual scavengers, or destitute were automatically included. The key objectives of the exercise were to rank households based on their socioeconomic status and get authentic information on caste-wise population, socio-economic and educational status.

How did the government decide to include caste in the 2011 census?

In May 2010, the ruling Congress backed the idea of including caste-wise data as a part of the ongoing census. Congress leaders argued that such data would provide a factual idea about the political and social landscape. The caste data was only about the headcount and not any detailed analysis of the economic and social condition of any castes. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet referred the issue to then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee-led Group of Ministers. Mukherjee supported the inclusion of caste data in the census.

The decision to include caste was made even though the census had already started. The caste data would be incorporated during the second round of the survey in 2011.

In 2010, Manmohan Singh told Parliament he was aware of the views of the House members belonging to all sections while assuring that the Cabinet would take a decision shortly. The then Union home minister P Chidambaram earlier told Parliament that there can be different views on the subject. He called for the need to respect each other’s views. Chidambaram called caste a reality and acknowledged that it was a divisive factor and that they were nowhere near establishing a casteless society.

How was the SECC conducted?

An NC Saxena-led expert group proposed indicators such as ownership of land, motorised vehicles, mechanised farm equipment, regular employment, and income taxpayer status for the automatic exclusion of rural households from the Below Poverty List (BPL). Primitive tribal, designated Maha Dalit groups, single women-headed households, those with disabled persons as breadwinners, or minors, dependent on alms for survival, homeless, and with bonded labourers on the BPL list were proposed for automatic inclusion. The expert group recommended that the remaining households be ranked on a scale of 10 based on caste, community, religion, occupation, educational status, and age of the head of household.

Critics of this methodology maintained that the process would not help in the identification of the real poor, particularly from weaker sections of society and SCs, STs, etc. Communities or castes like iron smiths, cobblers, potters, barbers, sweepers, weavers, etc come under self-employed and would get two points only in the recommended scoring pattern.

Which agencies were involved in the SECC?

The ministry of rural development conducted it in rural areas and the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation in urban areas. The caste census was under the administrative control of the Union home ministry, the registrar general of India (RGI), and census commissioner of India.

What happened to the SECC report?

The rural development and housing and urban affairs ministries finalised and published the SECC data. The SECC reports were made public. The ministry of social justice and empowerment told Parliament in 2022 that there was no proposal to release the caste data.

Why was not the caste data made public?

Officials involved in the process said there were many anomalies in the caste data as a large section of the population chose different ways to identify their castes. Some mentioned the sub-caste while others identified their communities as caste. The RGI had to sort it out. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government set up an Arvind Panagariya-led committee to classify the caste data from the census.