OBCs account for 41% of Indian population: NSS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court noted on Thursday that the government has no clear data on the Other Backward Classes (OBC), while staying the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. The Bill provided for 27% reservations for OBCs in centrally-aided educational institutions such as IITs and IIMs.

True, that the last time the census, the most authoritative data on the country’s demographics, captured the caste-based population figures was 76-years ago (1931 census). But it isn’t that there is simply no data available on castes.

The government-run National Sample Survey (NSS) does capture a broad, caste-based (including OBCs) demographic and social parameters such as education, employment, occupation and consumption. According to the last, and latest available figures from NSS 61st round (2004-05), OBCs accounted for 41% of India’s population, up from 35.8 % in 1999-2000.

From the 55th Round (1999-2000), NSSO has been collecting data on social groupings: Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs and others, for rural and urban areas separately. It covers parameters such as sex-ratio, employment statistics, land holdings, per capita expenditure and education

The regular national family health surveys (NFHS) and the district level survey on reproductive & child health (RCHS) held between 2002-04 in every Indian district, with a sample size of over 600,000 households, also encompass caste-based reporting. Policy makers refer to these data sources to guide their governance efforts — delivering public health, sanitation, rural development, literacy programmes et al.

So where’s the catch, something that made the SC bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice L S Panta to observe: “The centre has to determine who are the socially and economically backward people of India, before the can be given effect.”

NSS data is based on sampling, and since caste enumeration here is based on self-declaration by the respondent, demographers and statisticians alike say that extrapolation to the whole country have its own set of problems. “NSSO data does not categorise castes, it is based on responses by individuals,” said ministry of statistics programme implementation secretary Pronab Sen.

“The SC’s judgement is perfectly justified. The serious issues that can be raised from the 1931 census is that at the time India was undivided and that she had a foreign government,” economic advisory council member Saumitra Chaudhary said.

In reply to whether NSS data can be used as a basis, he said that even as NSS data is reliable, partial data cannot be a substitute for hard data. He added first there has to be acceptance of the fact that there is an absence of hard data. A 2011 census is welcome, he said.

shailesh.dobhal@timesgroup.com