View from Maha: Caste-based census next step towards more inclusivity

Mumbai, Oct 7 (IANS) After the recent Bihar caste-based survey 2022’ created waves, all major political parties in Maharashtra are clamouring for a similar enumeration of various communities in the state to enable more inclusivity at the social, academic, economic and political levels.

Most parties are studying in detail the Bihar survey which threw up that 112 Extremely Backward Castes comprise 36.01 percent of the state's 13-crore population, followed by 29 OBC castes accounting for 27.12 percent in which the Yadavs dominate with a 14.26 percent share, the SCs make up 19.65 percent, and the general unreserved category is just 15.52 percent.

Senior Maharashtra leaders like Congress working president M. Arif Naseem Khan, Shiv Sena (UBT) deputy leader Sushma Andhare, Nationalist Congress Party’s chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi president Rekha Thakur spoke their minds on the Bihar survey and the prospects for other states and the country in the long run.

“We are making a strong demand for a similar caste-based census to be conducted on a national level by the Central government… We need clarity on all the castes, communities, etc to ensure more inclusivity in the national mainstream and reach them the benefits of state-central welfare schemes,” said Khan.

Andhare said “there will be an impact of the Bihar survey on the states and national polity, but we need to wait and watch to what extent”, especially since political benefits go only ‘to those who are useful’ to the establishment or for ‘their nuisance value’.

“Since we can’t expect the Bharatiya Janata Party to do it, I feel the national opposition India bloc can take the lead in all the non-BJP states to conduct such caste-based surveys for equality and justice,” urged Andhare.

Thakur feels that the impact is already showing after the Bihar survey “threw up the actual ground realities” for the government, knocking the contradictory claims of many in the past.

“The Mandal Commission, implemented in 1990, had calculated the castes very scientifically, and the then estimates of 52 percent of the total population was labelled as ‘unbelievable’, and challenged in the courts,” said Thakur.

Now the Bihar survey report will have massive nationwide repercussions as it points to a similar status of different castes in various states, she added.

Tapase said the Bihar figures reveal that nearly 85 percent of the population comprises EBC, SCs, STs, OBCs and other communities, which was probably not expected by most people.

“If this is the situation in just Bihar, then what will be the status pan-India? NCP president Sharad Pawar has consistently demanded a caste-based survey in Maharashtra, but the government is reluctant to do it. Unless the government has the relevant data, how can it implement various welfare measures for the downtrodden effectively,” asked Tapase.

Concurring, Khan said that India is a democratic nation and unless proper, authentic data is made available on the exact status of different castes/communities, it would be impossible to do justice to the most deprived sections.

“It’s 75 years after Independence, and still a significant chunk of the population is not in the national economic or political mainstream… If needed, quotas may be enhanced, to ensure that the backwards are brought forward,” urged Khan.

Hailing from a micro-OBC (Ghumanti Nomadic Tribe-B) numbering around 500,000 in Maharashtra, Andhare pointed out that since the past over 50 years, Parliament has only 545 elected (Lok Sabha) MPs, which was implemented on a population base of 65 crore, but now with the population crossing 130 crore, there should be at least 1000 MPs.

“Sadly, nobody from my miniscule community is even elected at the Gram Panchayat level in the state, nearly two-thirds of the people of my clan don’t even have Aadhaar Cards. You get political benefits if you are useful or have nuisance value, otherwise the same political families or prominent backward groups will continue to wield power and influence,” rued Andhare.

Thakur feels that with ‘Bihar lighting the lamp in the darkness’, it is now up to all other states, especially those ruled by Opposition parties, to immediately take up similar caste-based surveys, bring out the castes/communities that may have been relegated behind by the bigger groups, as in Maharashtra, where the OBC list has increased from 272 to 376 castes in the past 35 years, and provide reservations or other benefits as required to all.

“My fear is that the current rulers are scared of the implications of the Bihar survey and the sudden introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill last month was a ploy to crush the demand for caste-based quotas… However, the awareness levels are very high after the Mandal Commission and such tinkering tactics could backfire,” Thakur cautioned.

The leaders are unanimous that the Bihar survey has possibly opened a political pandora’s box, and as the late Prime Minister V. P. Singh had once told (this reporter) in 2001, “the deprived castes and classes will remain a dominant factor in Indian politics for at least another 75 years”, could well prove prophetic.