जातीय जनगणना का मसौदा कैबिनेट में आज नहीं

नई दिल्ली जातीय जनगणना का प्रस्ताव गुरुवार को कैबिनेट बैठक के एजेंडे में नहीं होगा। इस मसले पर कैबिनेट में अनौपचारिक चर्चा जरूर हो सकती है। कांग्रेस कोर ग्रुप की बैठक में जाति के आधार पर जनगणना के सवाल पर हुई चर्चा के बाद इसे अगली कैबिनेट बैठक में लाने पर सहमति बनी है।

सूत्रों का कहना है कि गृह मंत्रालय अभी इस मामले में निश्चित मसौदा तैयार करेगा। सूत्रों का कहना है कि कांग्रेस के आला नेतृत्व के बीच जाति आधारित जनगणना की प्रक्रिया तय करने के बारे में चर्चा हुई है। आला सूत्रों का कहना है कि यह बड़ा फैसला है और इसमें थोड़ा वक्त लगना लाजिमी है। गौरतलब है कि प्रधानमंत्री मनमोहन सिंह ने लोकसभा मंे सांसदों को आश्वासन दिया था कि जाति आधारित जनगणना के बारे में कैबिनेट जल्द ही फैसला करेगी। लोकसभा में सदन के नेता और वित्तमंत्री प्रणब मुखर्जी ने भी भरोसा दिलाया था कि सरकार इस बार की जनगणना में ही जाति आधारित जनगणना को शामिल करेगी। इस आश्वासन के मद्देनजर ही इस मसले पर कांग्रेस कोरग्रुप के नेताओं के बीच मंथन हुआ।

बिग बी ने लिया जनगणना में हिस्सा

मुंबई. सुपरस्टार अमिताभ बच्चन ने मंगलवार को परिवार के प्रमुख के नाते अपने परिवार की जानकारी जनगणना अधिकारियों को देकर जनगणना कार्यक्रम में हिस्सा लिया। उनके जुहू स्थित ‘प्रतिक्षा’ बंगले पर जाकर जनगणना अधिकारियों ने उनसे जनगणना पत्रक पर सभी आवश्यक जानकारी दर्ज करवाई। बिग बी के बंगले पर जनगणना की जानकारी हासिल करने जाने वालों में मनपा के/पश्चिम विभाग के सहायक मनपा आयुक्त रमेश पवार, उप कार्यकारी स्वास्थ्य अधिकारी डॉ. पद्यजा केसकर और प्रगणक सुलोचना कांबले प्रमुख थीं।

मनपा अधिकारियों ने बताया कि बिग बी ने जनगणना पत्रक को भरते वक्त उनसे युनिक आयडेंटीटी कार्ड के बारे में जानकारी पूछी। उन्होंने बहुत ही उत्सुकता के साथ जनगणना की प्रक्रिया में हिस्सा लिया। मुंबई मनपा की अतिरिक्त मनपा आयुक्त (पश्चिम उपनगर) मनीषा पाटणकर-म्हैसकर ने जनगणना प्रक्रिया में सभी लोगों के शामिल होने की अपील की है। उन्होंने बताया कि मुंबई मनपा क्षेत्र के अंर्तगत जनगणना के लिए 150 घरों का एक ब्लॉक बनाया गया है। इस तरह से कुल 37, 617 घरों का ब्लॉक बनाया गया है। उन्होंने बताया कि 1 मई से शुरू हुई जनगणना की प्रक्रिया 155 जून तक चलेगी।

Interrogating the caste census

The Government of India has agreed to authorise the census operation to collect caste data, after an interval of 80 years.

Those who argued that this should not be done as part of the census but conducted separately through the Backward Classes Commission lost the argument. In a sense, this step is a logical one derived from the increasing role of identity politics in our elections, based on the first-past-the-post system. The politicians who are interested in the caste census data are not as interested in advancing the living standards and the status of the traditionally disadvantaged as they are in organising them into vote banks. The census data will be a powerful tool in their hands. This step will help consolidate the first-past-the-post system of elections and enable a significant section of our parliamentarians to be elected with a minority of votes polled in their favour and the majority of the constituency voting against them. Consequently they are not likely to have the democratic culture to respect the majority in the House and are likely to indulge in gimmickries designed to attract the attention of their core constituencies. This is the position today and with the legitimising of caste-based politics through the collection of census data, the culture of disruptions in Parliament is likely to be perpetuated.
Caste is not peculiar to India. It is prevalent in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Conversion to Islam and Christianity or Buddhism does not erase caste identity. In spite of the claims of Islam and Christianity that all believers are equal, the caste advantages and disadvantages continue to be perpetuated even after conversion. Therefore, the demand that caste reservation should be extended to the converts to Islam and Christianity. This demand has already been accepted and judicially approved. In such circumstances it is only logical that caste data for the census should cover all religions and not be restricted to those calling themselves Hindus. It is presumed the government’s instructions to the census authorities will implement this requirement. In due course this will lead to the reservations being operated on the basis of caste, without reference to religion. It will be interesting to watch whether such a development in India will lead to similar demands in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
One wonders whether this rushed decision will give rise to new problems. It has been asserted by the government that this data will not be subjected to analysis. Is that proposition realistic? Caste is a very complex subject. A particular caste having the same name can be an upper caste in one state, a backward caste in another state and a most backward caste in a third state. Vesting the data with the sanctity of the census operation is bound to raise issues of quotas within reservations based on the relative strengths of castes. If the politician’s interest was in the uplift of the traditionally disadvantaged, that could have been done by criteria-based affirmative action. But his real purpose is votebank politics and not the welfare of the masses. It is not going to be easy to escape the tensions that this casteism-strengthening exercise is likely to unleash. Such legitimisation of casteism will strengthen, for instance, the hands of reactionary and obscurantist khap panchayats. We see the pernicious hold of a casteist mindset in instances where parents murder their own children for crossing caste boundaries in choosing their spouses.
Our Constitution-makers did not anticipate that caste would end up being strengthened by the kind of electoral process they instituted. Our freedom fighters looked forward to a casteless society. There were movements in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and elsewhere for the eradication of caste. Now even those who championed caste eradication earlier have been seduced by caste vote-bank politics and are contributing to the perpetuation of such identities to derive political mileage. Strange are the ways of untethered democratic politics corrupted by the first-past-the-post system!
At the same time this census data collection provides a unique opportunity to all Indians who would like to see a casteless India to assert their views and make this a referendum on caste endorsement. Every Indian who would like to eradicate caste should enroll in the census as belonging to the Indian caste.
Here is an opportunity for progressive civil society to assert itself. It is likely that those sections of the population which have benefited from reservation and have followed leaderships who depend on caste politics will enthusiastically register their caste identities. But as the casteists have gained, let the resistance to casteism also advance. It may take many censuses before the majority of Indians are willing to renounce this millenia-old institution. As India urbanises and develops, casteism and caste-based politics will lose significance.
Ultimately India will have to promote a social and economic criteria-based affirmative action progamme which will drown the caste-linked educational and job reservations. Electoral reforms which will require a candidate to poll 50 per cent plus of votes cast in a second round to get elected are also needed. All that will take time. Meanwhile, let us start with this census and let all those who want a casteless India for our children and grandchildren register Indian against the caste column, when the census enumerator turns up at our doors.

Amitabh Bachchan speaks out against caste in consensus

Amidst the debate on the inclusion of caste in the national census, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has said that he does not believe in caste and neither does his family.

The 67-year-old veteran said that if asked about his caste, he will answer that he is an Indian."My Father never believed in caste and neither do any of us. He married a Sikh, I married a Bengali, my brother a Sindhi, my daughter a Punjabi, my son a Mangalorean, in his autobiography my father had expressed that future generations of his family should marry into different parts of the country. So far that tradition has been kept alive," wrote the actor on his blog.

Census enumerators came calling on the Bachchanhousehold, prompting the actor to express his views on the issue."Officials from the BMC, the Bombay Municipal Corporation, troop into Prateeksha to detail in on information. All kinds of information is sought name, place, age, dependents, place of birth, house, residence years. I wait for them to come to the crucial controversial one...caste. They don't."Wary of the sensitivity that this has raised recently by politicians, they keep away from it. I tell them irrespective of what the system decides, my answer is ready, caste, Indian," wrote Bachchan. Political parties including Samajwadi Party, which has Bachchan's wife Jaya amongst its members, are demanding thatcaste be included in the ongoing census.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the government will soon take a decision on caste-based census in the country.Deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Janata Dal-United (JDU) president Sharad Yadav are amongst those demanding that caste be registered during the census exercise.