Why it's in news
Major opposition and regional leaders have met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to argue in favour of counting caste in the country's census.
Why caste census needed
1.Caste census bring out evidence on caste inequalities -caste-based census will expose the wealth/income/education gap between the upper and non-upper caste groups relative to their population.
2.Caste based privilege - They argue that in order to abolish caste, it is essential to first abolish caste-derived privileges, state must first map castes and their socio-economic status privileges/deprivations .
3.Caste census will help in analyzing the genuineness and rationalize the caste based reservation -We can know how much progress is achieved with the help of reservations .
4.Data for Policymaking- This information is absolutely necessary for any democratic policymaking.
5.Caste-based census will also expose the claim of many supporters of neo-liberalism who claim that capitalism and its variants are best possible system to annihilate caste.
Sociological Implications
1.Caste census will lead to the collapse of the existing social structure or social harmony.
2.Polarization of caste Census -How will caste census be politically beneficial for political parties- Vote bank ( National v/s regional parties )
3.Caste census lead to a further assertion of identity politics over class politics.
4.Caste census will reinforce hierarchy and breed more Inequality - caste census divide the society.
5.Increase caste feelings- may lead to clashes, especially in villages where maintaining anonymity is difficult.
6.Caste census lead to social fragmentation and caste enmities and serve to weaken the Hindu identity.
7.Those who are among the dominant side of the society are unwilling to have information about inequalities come out from caste census.
