Mangaluru: The first caste-based socio-educational survey – taken up state-wide from April 11 – does not contain codes for the two major sects of Christianity in its Caste Census form, leading to the apprehension that they will not be enumerated accurately.
The Caste Census, which is conducted by Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes following a Supreme Court order, aims to record details of every individual including his socio economic status beginning with his/her caste. However, the two major sects of Christianity – Roman Catholic and Protestants among few others – do not appear in the Caste Census form.
The Karnataka government is spending nearly Rs. 200 crore as well as deploying over 1.26 lakh enumerators to visit 1.30 crore households for this door-to-door survey. Without the mention of two prominent sects, the Caste Census is going to remain incomplete at least for Christians and also for the government in terms of documentation and data on which to base allocation of benefits.
The population of every religion is recorded in the Census every ten years. However, the Caste Census – taken for the first time after 1931 – is intended to document more specific details. The Christian population is a little over ten lakh in the state. But, there is no authentic data which shows the population of the sects of the Christianity.
Records 1,503 castes
At present, the Caste Census form shows as many as 1,351 castes, which falls under Hindu, Muslim and Christians among others. It excludes as many as 101 sub-castes under Scheduled Castes (SC’s) and 51 under Scheduled Tribes (ST’s). There are over 50 names of sub-castes figure in the Caste Census form of Christians. But, there is no provision to mention Roman Catholic, Protestants and some others in the census form. The form is restricted to the word “Christian”
The survey report throws light on the status of every individual on matters like sanitation, profession, living environment, caste, gender, educational qualification and access to electricity. It includes 55 questions, where most of the answers are filled by quoting a predetermined set of codes which surprisingly does not contain the words Roman Catholic and Protestant, the biggest denominations among the Christians.
Pradeep D’Souza, district statistical officer, who was the first to spot the error, brought the issue to the notice of Canara Communication Centre Director Fr Richard D’Souza. Later, Bishop of Mangaluru diocese called for a meeting of stake holders, which failed to draw any result. Lately, a memorandum has been issued to the State Government to include the missing sects in the census form.
When newskarnataka.com contacted Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes chairman H?Kantharaj over phone, he said that the census form does not include all the castes. “Based on the earlier records and representation by different communities, we have included a list of castes and we know there are many more. There is a separate column ‘others’, where every individual can fill the caste he belongs to manually. During the screening of these forms, we will include ‘codes’ for the record”, he said.
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