JOIN USThe Karnataka government does not find itself in an enviable position with the High Court directing it to make its stand clear on the Social and Educational Survey-2015, in other words the caste census, conducted when Siddaramaiah was chief minister. The census has become a hot potato that no government wants to handle as it brings into question the numerical dominance of certain communities that have traditionally held sway over electoral politics in the state. While the avowed purpose of the survey was to identify the contours of the backward communities to tailor programmes for their welfare, Siddaramaiah was forced to shelve the report after some leaders of prominent communities accused the government of fudging the figures with an eye on the 2018 Assembly polls. His successors, H D Kumaraswamy and B S Yediyurappa, too, put the report in cold storage.
Caste census is not new in India, though the last such exercise was held under the British in 1931. The caste column was discontinued from the census after Independence, in tune with the country’s secular character. However, there was also a need to ensure social justice, as the Constitution mandated. Hence, from 1961, the survey included SC/STs but completely ignored OBCs. Subsequently, after a discussion in Parliament, the Manmohan Singh government included caste in the 2011 census. This report, too, was withheld for a few years, indicating how caste numbers have become a difficult issue to handle.
Karnataka invested over Rs 150 crore on the survey. It is unfortunate that the report is not being utilised to ensure the ends of social justice only because its findings may be inconvenient to certain powerful communities. A recent request by the Department of Planning and Statistics to access a portion of the information for the “purpose of sustainable development goal indicators”, was also rejected by the government. According to the survey, which was partially leaked, but never officially released, SC/STs, Muslims and Kurubas now constitute close to 50% of the population and outnumber Lingayats and Vokkaligas, who have dominated the political scene in the state by the virtue of their perceived numbers. Leaders of these communities fear that they may be reduced to playing second fiddle if the report is officially released or accepted. The government, on its part, is apprehensive that certain sub-sects, whose population has increased, may demand a bigger share in the reservation pie. With caste politics coming to the fore, the very purpose for which the survey was commissioned, that is, to empower the disadvantaged sections of the society, is lost. No matter what the politics of it is, the data that has been collected must be made public.