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Sharat Pradhan
Desperate to implement affirmative action for the 'truly downtrodden' among the socially underprivileged, the Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a census of the state's lower caste groups.
Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, who heads a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, has ordered the headcount of Dalits, known in official parlance as 'scheduled castes', as well as other socially underprivileged communities listed under the 'other backward classes' category.
The first such exercise in independent India, the caste census is to commence from July 30. The only other caste census in India was carried out way back in 1931 by British demographer AC Turner.
"We will carry it out on a war footing to ensure that the whole exercise is complete within a week," state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Hukum Singh, who also heads the newly constituted State Social Justice Committee said.
As many as 63,000 government employees have been pressed into service to ensure timely completion of the census.
There are 66 listed castes among Dalits and as many as 79 among the OBCs. According to rough official estimates, OBCs form about 54 percent of Uttar Pradesh's population, Dalits form 18.5 percent and Muslims 10 percent.
Significantly, 23 castes out of the 79 listed OBCs are from the Muslim community.
"The census exercise to be undertaken now would bring out the percentage population of each of these castes among Dalits and OBCs. Their participation in government jobs would also be assessed," Hukum Singh said.
He reiterated the chief minister's claim that the economically and politically stronger groups among the Dalits and OBCs had cornered the benefits of job reservations so far.
"Now it is for us to find out as to what extent were the larger chunk of Dalits and OBCs actually getting deprived of their due," he added.
Rajnath Singh proposes to set aside a chunk of government jobs for the 'most backward' among the underprivileged groups.
Asked how he proposed to accomplish the gigantic task in such brief time, Hukum Singh said, "Well, we are getting the panchayat (village council) family registers scanned to get a first-hand account of the exact number."
Political analysts see a clear motive at work behind the haste with which the task has been undertaken, especially since state assembly elections are round the corner.
The BJP, they point out, is still largely seen as a party of the upper castes and hopes to widen its support base. Rajnath Singh's proposal, they say, is a pre-election sop.
The leaderships of the state's two main opposition groups, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, see the census and reservation proposal as Rajnath Singh's 'political game'.
"This is the chief minister's attempt to drive a wedge between members of the Dalit and backward communities, but I can assure you he will not succeed," said SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
BSP's Mayawati dismissed it as 'another Rajnath Singh gimmick'.
Indo-Asian News Service
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