Political Parties: The Driving Force for a Successful Caste Census

Let’s Learn from Nagaland to Make India’s Caste Census a National Triumph!

May 25, 2025 

India’s bold move to conduct a caste census in 2025, the first in 94 years, is a historic step toward social justice and equality. With 1.4 billion people and thousands of castes, the task is monumental: logistical challenges, social sensitivities, and the shadow of the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), which faltered with 46 lakh inconsistent caste entries, loom large. Yet, Nagaland’s 2011 Census lights the way. Through its communitization model, village councils, tribal hohos (apex bodies), and church networks achieved near-universal participation. Political parties—national and regional—hold the key to making this caste census inclusive, accurate, and transformative for all of India.

Nagaland: A Model of Unity

In 2011, Nagaland, home to 1.98 million people, 86.5% of whom are Scheduled Tribes (STs), conducted a stellar census despite rugged terrain and diverse tribal identities. Its communitization approach empowered local institutions—village councils, hohos, and churches—to rally communities. Multilingual campaigns via radio and community gatherings united citizens, delivering precise data: a 79.55% literacy rate, a rare -0.58% population growth, and insights that fueled welfare policies. This community-driven success offers a blueprint for India’s caste census, with political parties as catalysts.

What is an Inclusive Caste Census?

An inclusive caste census counts every caste—Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and General categories—leaving no one behind. It requires cultural sensitivity, accessibility across urban and rural India, and transparent data to shape education, jobs, and welfare schemes. The SECC 2011’s errors—46 lakh vague entries, unreleased data—must be avoided. The 2025 census should provide reliable data to tackle intra-caste disparities, as seen in Bihar’s 2023 caste survey, ensuring benefits reach the most marginalized.

Political Parties: Architects of Success

With their nationwide networks and influence, political parties are uniquely equipped to drive the caste census. Their roles include:

• Building Trust: In Nagaland, local leaders framed the census as a shared mission, easing mistrust. Political parties can counter fears of social unrest or data misuse by assuring communities that the census strengthens social equity. From Uttar Pradesh’s caste complexities to Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian dynamics, parties can bridge divides and unify diverse groups.
• Mobilizing Participation: Nagaland’s leaders ensured enumerators reached remote villages. Parties can deploy their grassroots workers—MPs, MLAs, volunteers—to rally citizens in urban slums, rural hamlets, and tribal belts. Door-to-door campaigns and rallies can boost turnout across India’s diverse regions.
• Championing Benefits: Parties can highlight the census’s impact—better reservations, targeted welfare—through media, social platforms like X, and public events. Nagaland used church sermons; parties can leverage TV, radio, and WhatsApp to show how data will improve schools, jobs, and opportunities.
• Ensuring Cultural Sensitivity: With over 4,000 castes, parties can guide enumerators on local caste nuances, avoiding SECC’s errors. In Nagaland, enumerators respected tribal customs; parties can ensure similar respect for caste identities, clarifying sub-caste distinctions nationwide.

Citizens and Parties: A National Partnership

Political parties can amplify citizens’ roles, making them active partners:

• Encouraging Honest Reporting: Nagaland’s citizens provided accurate data. Parties can urge Indians to clearly report caste identities, preventing SECC-like ambiguities, through voter outreach and community dialogues.
• Fostering Accountability: In Nagaland, citizens ensured widespread participation. Parties can organize local meetings to encourage neighbors to join, especially in resistant or remote areas, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
• Creating Feedback Channels: Parties can set up helplines or local offices to address enumeration issues (e.g., inaccessible forms, untrained enumerators), mirroring Nagaland’s responsive approach.
• Spreading Awareness: Nagaland’s citizens shared census benefits via grassroots networks. Parties can mobilize supporters to amplify messages through social media, village gatherings, or urban forums, reinforcing the census’s value.

Scaling Nagaland’s Vision

Nagaland’s model is a national template. Parties can form local census committees, partnering with caste associations, panchayats, and urban bodies, as Nagaland did with village councils. Campaigns via newspapers, TV, and social media can echo Nagaland’s radio and church outreach. Training enumerators to navigate caste complexities, as Nagaland did for tribal identities, will ensure accuracy. Hybrid enumeration—digital for cities, paper-based for villages—can reflect Nagaland’s rural focus. Parties can push for amending the Census Act, 1948, to standardize caste categories, ensuring clarity.

Tackling Challenges

Political polarization, as seen in Bihar’s 2023 survey debates, risks resistance. Parties can counter this by framing the census as a unifying force, as Nagaland did. Logistical hurdles—urban sprawl, remote tribal areas, conflict zones—require party-led coordination with local governance. Privacy concerns demand transparent data protocols, communicated by trusted party leaders. In Nagaland, SCs were just 0.1%; nationally, parties must ensure SCs, OBCs, and minorities are fully counted, from Rajasthan to Assam.

A National Triumph

The caste census can redefine India’s social policies, but only with political parties leading the charge. Nagaland’s 2011 success proves that community-driven efforts deliver results. By uniting India’s diverse communities, clarifying the census’s benefits, and respecting cultural identities, parties can deliver a count that mirrors the nation’s diversity and uplifts its marginalized. Failure risks another SECC misstep. India, let’s follow Nagaland’s path and make the caste census a collective victory!