Dr. John Dayal
Member, National
Integration Council
Government of India
Member, National Monitoring Committee for Minority
Education,
Government of India
Secretary
General, All India Christian Council
Imm.
Past National President, All India
Catholic Union
505
Link Apartments, 18 IP Extn. Delhi 1100092 INDIA
Mobile
+91 9811021072 Land +91 11 22722262
15th
April 2012
Dr Manmohan
Singh
Prime
Minister of India
South
Block, Central Secretariat
New
Delhi 110001
Re: Serious
flaws in enumeration of Caste census will impact on Dalit, OBC and MBC Christians
Dear Prime
Minister
Easter
Greetings
I
am writing to you as a Member of the National Integration and on behalf of the All
India Christian Council to draw you urgent attention to serious deficiencies in
the enumeration process in the national Census on Caste which is now underway.
Unless corrected, the enumeration will lead to falsification of the data and
will seriously impact on the interests of the Christian community in general
and on the rights of those of the community people who trace their origins to
India’s Dalit and OBC groups.
This is from my own
personal experience and the experiences of other Christians in various parts of
the country.
Two enumerators, a lady
and a gentleman, came to my house and interviewed me as the head of the
household. They asked me my name and personal details. Thereafter they asked me
my religion. I told them. They then sought to leave. I asked them if they would
not ask me my caste. They had no answer. I told them they had to ask, even if I
thereafter said I had no caste, or declared any other caste. They again had no
answer. I must also mention that they did not ask us about the religion of
every individual member of the family, possibly presuming that everyone shared
the same faith. This may or may not be always true. In many urban families,
there may be spouses, sons or daughters in law who are Tribals, OBCs or of
Dalit origin. The Enumerating Staff have patently not been properly instructed
and trained.
This failure to ask
about the caste of those declaring Christianity as their religion is a major
procedural lapse that introduces an avoidable error in the data and will skew
the statistical computations. The Registrar General of India will not be able
to determine the caste diversity in the Christian community with any
exactitude.
Article 341 (iii) of
the Constitution or its predecessor the Presidential Order of 1950, which the
community has challenged through Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme
Court of India, cannot be used as an excuse, as the RGI’s office seem to be
doing, as this is a mere enumeration exercise and does not pre-suppose any
consequential benefits at this stage.
Even otherwise, OBC and MBC Christians, including the Latin Rite of Kerala have
acceptance in official records of several States.
The Dalit Christians
have, of course, for more than half a century repeatedly urged the government
to grant them Schedule Caste status, a demand supported by various national
Commissions, a large number of State governments and national and regional
political parties. The CPI-M, for instance, renewed this demand at their recent
meeting. We have consistently urged the Government of India to give a positive response
to the Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court on this issue.
The Government of India
should immediately direct the Census Commissioner and Registrar General of
India to ensure that in the on-going exercise, Christians should be enumerated
for their caste origins. For many, this is an assertion of their Identity.
Individuals can, should they so want, will continue to have the right to say
they do not want their caste to be recorded. The enumeration staff should be
appropriately instructed and trained in this matter.
Thank you
God bless India, and
God bless you
Yours sincerely
John Dayal
