The speakers participating at the launch of a book “Caste towards an inclusive India” prepared by the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP), National Law School of India University (NLSIU), felt that keeping caste enumeration out of the purview of Office of the Registrar General of India will defeat the very purpose of enumerating caste.
Recently, a Group of Ministers of the UPA Government had recommended that the collection of caste data be done in conjunction with the NPR.
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah said as NPR is likely to be outsourced, it is likely that the data gathering process is compromised.
Besides, there are chances that the NPR process would drag on much beyond the March 2011 deadline set for census enumeration.
Writer and critic Baraguru Ramachandrappa said the caste enumeration should not just remain a headcount. The reason to enumerate caste was to obtain data on the socio-economic status of various communities. There was also a need to identify minor castes which have been deprived of reservation benefits.
Former chairman of Backward Classes Commission Ravi Verma Kumar remarked that several forward communities were unjustly enjoying the benefits of reservation. A caste census would help in ensuring genuine backward classes get the benefits, he said.
Writer and President of Sarvodaya Karnataka Devanoor Mahadeva said policy decisions on reservations especially to the backward classes are handicapped by the lack of data base. A caste census will generate a reliable data base on issues such as interrelations between caste and socio-economic condition.