Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said post the census, the government must take measures to enhance the cap on reservations at 50 per cent
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MOHD ARIF
With the NDA government agreeing to conduct a caste census across the country, the question now being asked is, how will it help, and what can the Central and State governments do with the data? Social activists, economists and intellectuals feel that a lot can be done using the data.
“So far, there is no such data available, barring the data we have on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. When the caste-wise data comes, it is like recognising the numerical strength of various sections of society,” Bhangya Bhukya, who teaches history at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), told businessline.
Bhukya is part of the 11-member experts’ panel constituted by the Telangana government last month to assess the data that it collected through the Socio-Economic, Education, Employment, Political, and Caste Survey 2024 (SEEEPC survey). The Committee, headed former High Court judge B Sudarshan Reddy, would help the government interpret the data.
“The data will help us assess where people belonging to a particular caste stand in terms of various development indicators. Some may be doing well in education but not doing so well financially,” he said.
He cited the examples of certain nomadic tribes that don’t have a profession of their own but for a few traditional food-gathering occupations. “If we can generate data, we will be able to bring them to the development paradigm,” he said.
Kanneganti Ravi, Convenor of the Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee, wanted the government to provide budgetary allocations proportionate to their share in the population.
“Generally, political parties don’t want to do anything to ascertain the composition of society on a caste basis, fearing demands for a better share in power and economic benefits. Now that they are doing this, the government should set up a BC Sub-Plan and allocate funds proportionate to their population,” he said.
“They should also get due representation in the political space too,” he said.
Factor regional differences
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy felt that the Union government should factor in regional differences in the status of castes. He also cites a couple of examples like for this. While Boyas are Scheduled Tribes in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, they belong to the Other Backward Castes in the neighbouring Karnataka. Similarly, Lambadas, who are considered STs in Telangana, are OBCs in Maharashtra.
“The Union government must be careful in identifying these regional variations. They must talk to different political parties, State Governments, and civil society groups to understand the nuances,” he said.
He said post the caste census, the government must take measures to enhance the cap on reservations at 50 per cent. “The BCs should get 42 per cent reservations,” he said.
“The caste census being included in the population census is an important change insofar as caste happens to be a social reality in India, is getting recognition on the official statistics platform,” G Vijay, faculty, School of Economics at the UoH, said.
The consequences and the way that this data is used towards achieving desirable social outcomes, however, is quite contingent upon combining this data, with a variety of other data sets, including occupations, wealth, poverty, consumption etc, Some of these data might not even exist as of now,” he said.
“It is only by combining the caste census data with these other data sets, we can either ask questions or address concerns of social democracy. We can know whether the development model has provided adequate representation and enabled social mobility, or it has only reproduced social disadvantages along lines with socially constructed caste hierarchies rigidly across age groups, gender, regional categories,” he said.
Published on May 2, 2025