Reading caste in inequality debate

The relations between social and economic deprivations are complex and play out in a complicated manner in electoral politics

By making a caste census the central pitch of its election campaign, the Congress has made this among the most important questions of the 2024 general elections. Is this a wise strategy in terms of potential rewards for the Congress? The answer depends on the relationship between caste and economic inequalities in present-day India and the possible political manifestation or lack of it in the elections.

An enumerator staff marks a house during a caste-based census in Bihar in 2023. (HT Photo)

The lack of comprehensive and recent data is a big constraint in answering this question objectively. India does not have any official statistics on income data. Survey-based asset data from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) is from before the pandemic and only gives us data at the broad social group level, namely, Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and those who do not belong to any of these groups. This data shows that it is SCs and STs who face the worst form of relative discrimination when it comes to asset poverty. As far as OBCs are concerned, they are almost equally represented within the ranks of the rich and the poor. This, in a way, reaffirms the need for caution in treating OBCs as a monolithic socio-economic block in India.

To be sure, the AIDIS data also offers other and perhaps, more important insights about the roots of inequality in India. Urban populations have a much larger share in assets than their rural counterparts and the ability to get out of agriculture is an important determinant in overcoming asset poverty. This is in keeping with the well-accepted economic transformation challenge in India which requires shifting labour from low-income farming to high-income non-farm activities. The ability of a caste census that will primarily increase the representation of OBCs within the ambit of reservation and other affirmative action programmes to deal with this transformation challenge will at best be limited.

So, will the Congress’s pitch of caste census to reduce economic inequality resonate politically? Historical data shows that the Congress’s long-term decline was a result of the party losing support across communities rather than among a particular social group. Can the Congress make a political comeback by aggressively wooing just one section of the society this time? Or should it have focused on a more broad-based catch-all political approach in keeping with its historical trajectory? We will know the answer on June 4.