• Anil Jaihind

Victor Hugo once said, “No power on earth can stop a transformative idea whose time has come.” Leader of Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi, whom the downtrodden of India hail as savior & protector of our Constitution, while speaking in Parliament on July 29, 2024, had challenged Modi Government and said these prophetic words, “Whether you like it or not, we shall force you to execute Caste Census in the tenure of this very Lok Sabha.” For nine long months Prime Minister Modi continued to ridicule Shri Rahul Gandhi. Modi asserted that the Caste does not exist in India, there are only four castes viz Women, Youth, Poor & Farmers. He went further and said that those demanding Caste Census are Urban Naxals –a word usually reserved for those who work for Social Justice to the SCs, STs, OBCs. He used another word, ‘Sinners’ meaning it’s a sin to demand Caste Census. RSS often criticized Caste Census as divisive of Hindus and a regressive idea. But just after nine months later on 30th April, 2025, Modiji did his characteristic somersault and suddenly announced that his government will conduct the ‘Caste Census’. It is evident that the Constitutional Social Revolution ushered by Shri Rahul Gandhi has begun. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Caste is a reality of India. It is the Elephant in the room. One may close his/her eyes and pretend that Caste does not exist at its own peril. It is everywhere. Pick up the metropolitan city newspapers matrimonial columns, where the most educated rich modern live. You will find Caste wise columns of IIT-ians Engineers, Doctors, CAs, MBAs seeking bride or groom but of their own caste only. Other Caste-wala are strictly barred. Shankaracharya, priests of temples are appointed based on Caste. Political parties distribute tickets and make their ministries based on Caste. Not long-ago, BJP put up hundreds of large hoardings on the roads of Delhi, proclaiming that so many number of OBCs have been made Ministers in Modi’s cabinet. Most number of relatives & friends of most Indians are from her/his own caste. In most companies of corporate world, one will find that most partners are from one caste only and so on. One can change his religion in India but one cannot change his caste even if he remains in his own religion or changes his religion.

It’s interesting and intriguing that if one picks up the list of CEOs of NIFTY 50 companies, you will find all of them are ‘Savarnas’ as labeled in Caste system and who account for just 10 to 15% of total Indian population. Pick up the list of Billion-dollar startups, again 95% are ‘Savarnas’!

But pick up a list of manual scavengers of India, 99% would be Dalits. Pickup a list of Gig workers, 95% will be OBCs, Dalits, Adivasis! Why so much inequality among different Castes? Is it due to poverty, or discrimination based on Caste, or lack of opportunities of education or business, or lack of network/social capital? What is the reason that generation after generations some caste continues to remain at the lowest rung of socio-economic educational ladder?

Imagine a girl child is born to a daily wage Dalit farm laborer living in a far-flung area of Bihar or Orissa. The girl is a genius. She is very hard working and honest, absolutely dedicated to her studies. She possesses all the qualities required to become the best Neuro-Surgeon of the world. The Yaksha Prashna/question is, will she ever be able to become a Neuro-Surgeon at all? I seriously doubt. Another question arises, is it her loss only? No! I strongly believe its India’s loss! Our country lost one of the best Neuro-Surgeons it could have had. It is a common knowledge in India that one usually ends up at the same socio-economic educational strata of the society to which his/her parents belong to. Inter-generational and Intra-generational social mobility is very low in India and the major reason for that is our punishing Caste-system. Examples of social mobility are very few in India, and when it happens it’s a front-page news, as it is a rare phenomenon. Like every time the result of civil-services are announced in India we read a news like, “An auto-driver’s daughter has become an IAS officer.” There are one or two such rare cases every year out of hundreds of examinees who qualify for civil services. As it is a rare phenomenon so it is a news, like they say, dog bites a man is not a news but a man bites a dog is a news being a rare instance. In a Social Mobility survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, India was at the level of 76 in Social Mobility Index among the 82 total surveyed countries. It is much below than even many African countries. Shri Rahul Gandhi the leader of opposition strongly believes that these are not mere coincidences. The reason behind this continuing inequality among castes even after 75 years of our Constitution coming into existence, is something much deeper. The insights and answers to this continuing stark inequality can be found by a Scientific Caste Census. The Caste Census he termed as an ‘X-Ray’ of the Indian society. It will diagnose the disease of the Indian society. And as a qualified doctor I can vouch that once you have a Diagnosis, the treatment of the disease becomes easy, but without diagnosis even a doctor can not cure the patient.

Shri Rahul Gandhi’s vision of caste census does not stop at merely counting of number of individuals of different castes. His vision is a vision of scientific caste census in which every important aspect of an individual is recorded. This vision is reflected in the Telangana 2024 SEEEPC survey. It recorded, Social, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political, Caste Survey. Three and a half crores of Telangana individuals were surveyed, belonging to 245 castes. A questionnaire is the most important tool in such surveys. It is the ‘Soul’ of the survey. A questionnaire was prepared to study 74 points of information. One lakh, three thousand, eight hundred eighty nine enumerators visited every household in 33 districts, 94261 blocks in a period of two months. Questions were based on the objective of getting answers for Demographic, Social, Behavioral, Discriminatory, Educational, Occupational, Economic, Political, Caste aspects of every individual. For all practical purpose this a Census but for legal reason it is named as Survey. It is an unprecedented, never before exercise in India or perhaps the world. Mandal Commission Field Survey 1980 is hailed as a Gold standard report. But compare it with Telangana 2024 SEEEPC survey and one will find it almost 500 times more deeper. Mandal commission had surveyed 50 lakhs individuals out of 35 crore OBC population of that time and it had 11 points of information compared to 74 points of information in TELANGANA 2024 SEEEPC survey.

The huge treasure of data collected in the survey is being deeply & comprehensively studied by a team headed by a retired judge of Supreme Court, Justice Sudarshan Reddy with Kancha Ilaiah as Vice Chairman and comprises of several world-renowned experts, analyzing the caste survey data. Praveen Chakravarthi is the secretary of the committee. Very soon, the committee will submit its detailed report. I am confident that like Mandal Commission report it will be a watershed happening in the history of Social Justice movement of India.

The author is a Chairman, OBC Department, AICC