With a big win under its belt, it is to be seen how BJP reacts to the opposition demand for a caste censusgiven the possibility it can now accommodate the sensitive issue without coming across as working under opposition pressure.
BJP has the policy opening to order the second edition of the Socio-Economic CasteCensus (SECC), first done in 2011. With a mix of caste enumeration and poverty parameters, the nationwide survey was to reveal caste details of the country besides mapping poverty of rural households.But theSECC date on caste was never processed, amid complaints that there were flaws in the details collected.
There have been serious demands from policymakers in the past for SECC-2, as the details of households about their economic status and assets collected 12 years ago are dated. Most targeted welfare measures and development schemes of the government are based on the household details provided by the SECC.
Politically, the SECC is a milder version of caste mapping, that would avoid bringing it in the decennial census and thereby not clash with inhouse BJP reservations that it would antagonise the upper castes. The decennial census, which was to take place in 2021, is also pending.
After the INDIA alliance unveiled caste census as one of their key demands/promises, and Bihar followed it up by making public details of its own survey, there has been speculation about how BJP would react. While PM Modi has said the only caste in the country is of poor, and later added four social demographics – women, farmers, youth and poor – as what he considers caste, its reality in the heartland cannot be ignored.
BJP would have been chary to work on caste census under pressure from the opposition alliance, as it would have appeared to be reacting, and would have given the authorship of the issue to the rivals. Now, having swept the three states despite the aggressive Congress focus on caste census, BJP, many believe, can seek to gain the upper hand on the issue, especially because rivals like RJD-JD(U) and SP are insisting on it in Bihar and UP.
BJP has the policy opening to order the second edition of the Socio-Economic CasteCensus (SECC), first done in 2011. With a mix of caste enumeration and poverty parameters, the nationwide survey was to reveal caste details of the country besides mapping poverty of rural households.But theSECC date on caste was never processed, amid complaints that there were flaws in the details collected.
There have been serious demands from policymakers in the past for SECC-2, as the details of households about their economic status and assets collected 12 years ago are dated. Most targeted welfare measures and development schemes of the government are based on the household details provided by the SECC.
Politically, the SECC is a milder version of caste mapping, that would avoid bringing it in the decennial census and thereby not clash with inhouse BJP reservations that it would antagonise the upper castes. The decennial census, which was to take place in 2021, is also pending.
After the INDIA alliance unveiled caste census as one of their key demands/promises, and Bihar followed it up by making public details of its own survey, there has been speculation about how BJP would react. While PM Modi has said the only caste in the country is of poor, and later added four social demographics – women, farmers, youth and poor – as what he considers caste, its reality in the heartland cannot be ignored.
BJP would have been chary to work on caste census under pressure from the opposition alliance, as it would have appeared to be reacting, and would have given the authorship of the issue to the rivals. Now, having swept the three states despite the aggressive Congress focus on caste census, BJP, many believe, can seek to gain the upper hand on the issue, especially because rivals like RJD-JD(U) and SP are insisting on it in Bihar and UP.