Release caste census report

The state government ought to shed its ambivalence on making public the findings of the socio-economic and educational survey (aka ‘Caste Census’) lying in cold storage since 2018. The government, in the saddle of power since May 2023, has though decided to place it before the next cabinet meeting and follow its recommendation, it should not be an excuse to keep it under wraps. It is nearly ten years since it was taken up and several key decisions await its release and implementation. It is rather ironical that while Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi talks about conducting the ‘Caste Census’ across the nation, the outcome of an exercise so meticulously conducted in the State of Karnataka should not see the light of the day. It seems Chief Minister Siddramaiah is under pressure from members of the dominant castes within his own party and the cabinet not to make the contents of the report public.

While it is natural to expect opposition from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), given its dependence on the Lingayat community support, the Government should go by its own vision of empowering the downtrodden and traditionally backward communities. Given the leaked contents of the report, members of dominant castes, namely Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities apprehend that their declined numbers would adversely affect any decisions or actions that would follow once the report is adopted. Himself being the leader of AHINDA—an acronym for religious minorities, backward classes and Dalits)—Mr. Siddaramaiah should have been propelled into action more by the ideals and ideologies that he has cherished and have won him and the party the massive mandate than the pressures of the traditionally dominant caste groups and communities. The Karnataka ‘Caste Survey’ had compiled data on the socio-economic status of people clubbed under 1.35 crore households.

It was gathered by 1.6 lakh field surveyors who practically visited each house over a period of 45 days in 2015 and verified the replies of 55 questions through individual caste certificates, school records and historically documented references. It entailed expenses to the tune of Rs. 165 crore. Empirical data being the soundest basis for any decision, the State government will be on legally solid ground for any decisions that it would be taking. Karnataka has been a pioneering state in initiating socioeconomic reform right from the dawn of the 20th century when the government of the then Maharaja of Mysore Nalawadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar introduced reservation for the backward classes following the presentation of Report of the Leslie Miller Committee in 1918 braving the opposition of the then dominant Brahmin community. Chief Minister Devaraj Urs further reinforced the movement for empowerment of landless and less represented communities by taking forward the reservations to 69 per cent which were however brought down to 49 per cent following the historic judgement by Supreme Court in 1993 on Mandal Commission recommendation by the V. P. Singh-led Janata Dal government. The state now has data collected from a door-to-door survey in hand and need not apprehend pressures from the caste lobbies to use the historic opportunity to remove the imbalances accrued to communities deprived of their just share in the administrative structure of the state.