Fwd: This is not Caste Census/Why we should oppose this.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dilip mandal <dilipcmandal@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, May 20, 2011 at 10:52 PM
Subject: This is not Caste Census/Why we should oppose this.

Government should clarify position on caste enumeration. It's Important to collect facts related to educational and economical status

The Union Government's announcement to collect caste based data has created air of confusion which needs to be cleared.  After avoiding caste enumeration in the 2011 census, the government has decided to do the same from June to December, 2011.  But the cabinet decision is not clear whether this enumeration will throw any new light on India's social reality\relevance. Also it's not clear if this census will be according to the Census Act, 1948. If this exercise is not done according to the Census Act then it will not have any reliability and also it would be difficult to engage government teachers in this job.

We should demand from the government:

-          The Caste related data government is collecting in its June-December exercise should have questions in such a way that different caste's educational status and their share in various job categories is reliably gathered.

-          Questions should be posed in such a way that it shows in six decades of independence which all castes have been left behind in education and employment. These facts and figures are needed in any democratic country to run the development programmes in an efficient way.

-          This enumeration should collect different castes' economic situation and their share in the resources, something that should have been done in the decadal census. All the issues and questions of the decadal census are relevant and important in the upcoming exercise as well.

-          This data should be collected for all the castes. No particular caste or caste group should be excluded from this.

-          Caste census should be carried out according to the Census Act, 1948 so that data are collected in a reliable and trustworthy way and should be able to avoid any controversy or litigation.

-          It's worrisome news that the government is even looking to engage labourers under the MNREGA scheme in data compilation. Government should confirm or deny this alleged development and should only engage teachers in this exercise as they have the requisite skill set and experience to do this. 

 

 

 

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"Rosa sat so Martin could walk; Martin walked so Obama could run, Obama ran so your children can fly"

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Palash Biswas
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