WHY INDIA MUST GET THE CASTE CENSUS RIGHT

Counting caste is a mirror to the lived realities of millions and a vital step toward evidence-based policymaking

- 

The Narendra Modi government's decision to include caste enumeration in the next Census is one that is bold, transformative and commendable. Counting caste is not capitulation to identity politics. It is a mirror to the lived realities of millions. It marks a vital step towards evidence-based policymaking to build a more just and inclusive India. A nation that refuses to see itself cannot hope to heal itself.

Post-Independence, India attempted to abolish caste while simultaneously pursuing social justice — a textbook example of policy schizophrenia, as the two goals are fundamentally incompatible. The refusal to count caste in the Census was a corollary of the policy of caste blindness. But the Constitution explicitly mandates the pursuit of social justice through reservations in education, public employment, and electoral constituencies — measures that require precise, disaggregated caste data. Although the Constitution uses the term “class”, the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly ruled that caste is a valid, and often necessary, proxy for identifying backwardness and has insisted on detailed caste-wise data to uphold reservation policies.

In his 1955 essay, ‘Thoughts on Linguistic States’, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar denounced the omission of caste tables from the 1951 Census as an act of “petty intelligence”. Visibility in data is the first step toward meaningful inclusion. Caste data collection across all major social groups is essential not only for administering reservations, but also for equity-driven planning, targeted policymaking, and tracking disparities over time. Not collecting it has rendered many of India’s marginalised communities invisible in official statistics. Worse, a narrow elite of upper castes and dominant Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has entrenched its grip over wealth, opportunity and power behind the smokescreen of caste anonymity. In hindsight, this ranks among India’s gravest policy failures.