Govt sets up expert group to collate caste count

Amid a controversy over not releasing of caste census data, the government today set up an expert group headed by NITI Ayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya to collate caste count even as it blamed the states for not being able to complete the consolidation of different categories.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Announcing it, Finance Minster Arun Jaitley said, "A decision was taken today to set up a committee chaired by Vice Chairman of NITI Ayog, which will classify this caste data. When the task is completed, it will be made public at an appropriate time."

He said that the decision was in line with the one taken during the UPA government in May 2011.

The government has been criticised by parties, including Samajwadi Party, JD(U), RJD and DMK for refraining from releasing the caste-based data in its first Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC).

The SECC data released on July 3 is first in eight decades after 1912.

Brushing aside suggestions that the government avoided giving the caste count in the survey report due to political reasons ahead of Bihar polls, Jaitley said that it will be good if the states, who are "politicising" it, send their recommendations of caste consolidation at the earliest.

He said that the caste census conducted by the Registrar General of India has come out with 46 lakh categories of caste, subcaste, different surnames in the caste and clan names, which have been sent to the states eight-nine months back for clubbing them to consoldiate the caste count.

He said that the government is keen to release the caste data at the earliest as soon as the states send the details because the committee headed by Panagariya will only then be able to classify it.

"It will be good that states, which are politicising it, send their caste consolidation recommendation at the earliest. They cannot hold back the recommendation and then say you please release it," he said, adding so far most of the states have not been able to send the caste consolidation details.

The government could face a united opposition attack in the Monsoon Session of Parliament on the issue with parties like Congress, CPI(M), DMK, SP, RJD and JD(U) closing ranks.

While the government has rejected the charge that not releasing the caste count has anything to do with Bihar polls, lalu Prasad's RJD and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which have come together to fight the state's Assembly election, have made a strong pitch to make it public in an apparent attempt to consolidate OBC votes.

Asked how much of consolidation details have been sent by Bihar, Jaitley said they were "minimal".

The expert group, under the chairmanship of Panagariya, will be serviced by the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Affairs, which will nominate other members to it, an official statement said.

The central government had decided to collect data on caste through SECC with an approval of the Union Cabinet on May 19, 2011.

There were three components of SECC carried out separately by Ministries of Rural Development, Urban Development and Registral General of India. RGI conducted the caste census for which the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Tribal Affairs were nodal departments.

The census was conducted by the respective state and Union Territory governments.

The field survey on economic data has since been completed and the socio-economic data relating to rural areas has been released by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD).

Jaitley said that the work on urban data is under progress by the Urban Development Ministry.

According to a decision of the Union Cabinet of May 19, 2011, the government was to constitute an expert group to classify the caste/tribe data at an appropriate time.

Accordingly, the Cabinet reviewed the status of SECC and decided to form the committee headed by Panagariya.

The enumeration has thrown up 46 lakh caste/sub-caste names, synonyms, surnames, clans, gothra names. The expert group has been assigned to classify this data.

Citing an example of Jat community, which uses different titles, Jaitley said that these surnames and clan names have to be consolidated by respective states to arrive at the number of specific castes.

"Most of the states have not come out with their response so far," he said, adding that they will obvioulsy take time in completing the excerise.

The caste census issue is a political hot potato and anti- BJP parties, particularly in Bihar and UP, allege that the government is not releasing the caste data because wary of its electoral fall out. The government has, however, denied any political reason behind not releasing the caste data.

Mindful of the strength of OBCs in Hindi heartland, BJP has formed an OBC Morcha to boost its electoral fortunes in Bihar and UP, where polls will take place this year and in 2017 respectively, and where backward communities constitute a sizeable chunk of the population.