SC ruling may result in caste census

The demand for caste census is likely to get a fillip with the Supreme Court on Tuesday appearing to draw a link between OBC population and quantum of reservation for backward classes.

Coming just ahead of Parliament's monsoon session where proponents of caste census are set to renew their pitch, the order allowing Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to continue reservations exceeding the SC's 50% cap can inspire pro-Mandal players to push anew for an exercise to determine the exact population of backward castes. The SC relief is laden with possibilities, the biggest being a political justification for OBC satraps who have chafed at the 50% cap.

The fresh linkage between population and reservation quantum, even if not final, comes just when OBC satraps have stepped up pressure for caste census. The delay and the voices of opposition from Congress ranks have led them to fear that government could be backpedalling.

With Parliament session looming, the government may find itself under more pressure from backward outfits like SP and RJD who it needs on its side to boost its numbers. While the proponents of caste census have argued that enumeration of OBCs was required to better target the policies of OBC welfare, like knowing the size of the OBC group would help in determining the funds for welfare schemes, suspicions remain that the demand is actually driven by quota considerations.

The anti-caste census camp believes that the `Q' word has been avoided as it would have invited resistance from non-reserved communities and mired the issue in controversy. But the ruling is a welcome relief for Congress vis-a-vis coalition politics.

Deadline over, first phase of Ceunss yet to be completed in UP

Even after the June 30-deadline, the first phase of Census 2010 is far from over in the big towns of Uttar Pradesh. According to Census officials, the first phase — which includes data collection for Housing Census, House Listing and National Population Register (NPR) — is yet to be completed in towns where municipal corporations are handling the task.
Last week, after receiving reports on the tardy progress of the project, the state Directorate of Census Operations (DCO) had approached the state government seeking its intervention. On the DCO’s request, the government on Monday asked all divisional commissioners to direct the district magistrates to complete the exercise at the earliest.
“In almost all districts, the first phase of the Census has been completed. But the progress is tardy in municipal corporations, including Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Ghaziabad,” said A M Ansari, Deputy Director of the state DCO.
Among other municipal corporations, the first phase of the project has been completed only in Moradabad and Bareilly. The exercise is nearing completion in Agra, Aligarh, Meerut, Saharanpur and Gorakhpur. “We have requested the state government to issue directives in this regard to the divisional commissioners during their monthly review meeting in July,” said Ansari.
Last Saturday, the DCO had held a meeting with its in-charges in 71 districts to review the progress of the project. “We have received reports that enumeration is complete in almost everywhere except in big towns. While in a few towns, the enumerators did not show interest in the exercise in the beginning, at other places, they were not aware about the given areas — thus resulting in the delay,” said a DCO official.
According to sources, the helpline at the DCO office in Lucknow is still receiving complaints from people that enumerators have not reached their localities for survey. In the last one week, such complaints have poured mostly from Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi.
After the completion of the field survey, the district in-charges will submit the data by the end of this month. While the data of 46 districts will be brought to the Lucknow office, the remaining will be sent to New Delhi. “In the next six months, the data will be scanned and analysed. Then it will be used to prepare the report on Housing Census and House Listing as well as NPR,” said Ansari. The second phase of Census will begin in February 2011.